The former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday visited army officials detained over the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, the Daily Mirror reported.

Mr Rajapaksa met the five members of the security forces, including two lieutenant colonels and sergeant majors  at the prison Hospital in Welikada.

In September the military was forced to deny reports that it was blocking an investigation into Mr Eknaligoda's disappearance.

"Sri Lankan Army needs to be educated on future warfare to become a modernized army by 2025," said Mr Wickremsinghe, adding that the government hopes to launch “a program on future warfare to ensure the army is geared to handle different types of security threats and face any situation in future”

Sri Lankan army officers in Mullaitivu distributed “school accessories and educational items” to Tamil schoolchildren last week, despite continued criticism of military intrusion into civilian life in the North-East.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Nisha Biswal, today arrived in Sri Lanka, only days after a visit by another senior US official.

According to the Daily Mirror. Ms Biswal is expected to hold talks with the key government officials including Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and President Maithripala Sirisena.

Earlier this week, Counselor Tom Shannon visited Sri Lanka, during which he also met with Tamil civil society activist in Trincomalee, in the North-East.

A thirty-member Tamil People’s Council (TPC) was formed in Jaffna on Saturday to look into the Tamil people’s “wellbeing safety and integrity”.
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Consisting of representatives from civil society, academia, religious leaders and various political parties, the TPC will be headed by Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran and co-chaired by Dr P. Lakshman, Consultant Cardiologist at the Teaching Hospital, Jaffna and Mr T. Vasantharajah, the secretary of the Batticaloa civil society.

Leaders from Tamil National Alliance (TNA) constituent parties, such as ITAK, EPRLF and PLOTE alongside the TNPF have also been appointed as members of the council’s action committee.

Several subcommittees are due to be formed to “look into all the problems faced by the Tamil people” and will meet regularly with experts and advisers to work towards solutions, said the TPC.

Sri Lanka has requested India to extend the facilities of its currency swap agreement, provided in March this year.

The agreement, worth $400mn, was valid for three years, however Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said that Sri Lanka will have to manage its reserves wisely as China is planning to devalue its currency against the dollar while the USA’s Federal Reserve was planning to raise its interest rates.

The Sri Lankan government says it will oppose  India's plans to build a bridge between Tamil Nadu and the Tamil homeland in the North-East of the island.

Leader of the House, Lakshman Kiriella, who is also University Education and Highways Minister, said that Sri Lanka will not agree to the proposals, which India has repeatedly put forward in recent times.

"We are against it because people of Sri Lanka are opposed to it. We cannot let India build a sea bridge connecting Rameswaram with Thalaimannar," the minister told media on Friday.

On Wednesday, Indian Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in parliament that a bridge and tunnel will be built with ADB financing, linking the two countries.

The Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) said the Sri Lankan government had failed to uphold its promise to release Tamil political prisoners by December 15, in a statement released this week.

Stating that the organisation was “dedicated to working towards the fulfilment” of a UN Human Rights Council resolution that Sri Lanka had co-sponsored, CTC said “the Sri Lankan government must first take meaningful confidence-building measures to address ongoing human rights violations in order to gain the trust of the Tamil people”.

“One such urgently needed confidence-building measure is to address the situation of Tamil political prisoners,” it said.

Earlier this year, Tamil political prisoners who were being detained in jails across the island launched large scale protests and hunger strikes, drawing wide support across the North-East. The issue had also drawn international attention with the British government stating it would “continue to monitor closely the situation of detainees”.  A Jaffna University student also committed suicide over the crisis last month, prompting hundreds of demonstrators on to the streets, demanding justice.

The government had pledged that the cases of political prisoners would at least be reviewed by December 15, but that deadline has since passed with no significant action having taken place.

“While the government has made certain statements regarding political prisoners in the interim, December 15 has come and gone and the Sri Lankan government has yet to follow through on this promise in any concrete manner or present a clear plan on how they intend to address this issue” said CTC.