A policeman charged with the assault of a woman in Ratnapura has been reinstated after protests by residents and Buddhist monks, reports Ceylon Today.

Sergeant Prassanna Tissara was filmed assaulting a woman, with the video soon going viral. The police initially suspended Tissara, after the victim made a formal complaint.

A holy Buddhist tree, grown from a sapling planted by Mahinda Rajapaksa in India, is dying from “lack of care”.

According to the Hindustan Times, the Bodhi tree branches “were struggling with metallic wire-mesh that had been put over the sapling when it was small”.

The paper also said guards, in charge of security of the sacred tree, were defaecating near it due to the lack of adequate facilities.

"Our duty is to ensure security of the tree and we are doing that despite so many odds. Regarding the disease it is suffering and why it is not being watered regularly, you can contact senior officials," Atar Singh, one of the guards, told the Hindustan Times.

A member of the Vadamarachchi Vallipuram Alwar temple trustees’ council was attacked by a group of unidentified persons with swords in Jaffna over the weekend.

67–year-old Sathananthan Kesavananthan was returning to his home in Point Pedro when a group of unidentified persons on motorbikes arrived and started attacking him. As they attempted to stab him with swords, passengers on a public bus that witnessed the attack came to his rescue and scared away the attackers, reports Uthayan.