Three different Catholic shrines were found attacked this morning by unidentified persons in Mannar. 

The suspects had allegedly hurled stones at the shrines, shattering the glass shield covering the idols, according to locals.

Heavy Sri Lankan police and security presence was deployed yesterday to surveil the annual Pongal festivities hosted at Neeraviyadi Pillaiyar temple in Semmalai, Mullaitivu. 

The Government of Switzerland donated $4 million to Sri Lanka last month to combat the spread of the coronavirus on the island.

The relief included half a million antigen tests, 50 ventilators, 150 oxygen concentrators and testing materials. 

Sri Lankan military security forces across the districts of Mannar, Mullaitivu, Jaffna and Vavuniya administered COVID-19 vaccines for locals over the last two weeks.

Military personnel facilitated and administered vaccines and oversaw the operations across the North-East.

_{SLFP meeting in Vavuniya.} 

Sri Lankan parliamentarian Suren Raghavan stated he is “preparing to release another batch of political prisoners by next January”, during a meeting with Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) members in Vavuniya on Saturday. 

MP Raghavan stated, "we have recently released 16 prisoners due to my efforts in relation to prisoners. There's more work to be done". 

Sri Lanka's Coordinating Secretary to the Prime Minister, Geethanath Kassilingham, has denied the accusation by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP Sivagnanam Sritharan that land in Jaffna is being sold to China.

Sritharan maintained that 40 acres on the Delft Island and the Jaffna Kachcheri building, which falls under the purview of the Department of Archaeology was being sold to China and that was why  Namal Rajapaksa’s visited Jaffna. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the summoning of the Secretary of the Batticaloa District Tamil Journalist Association, Selvakumar Nilanthan, by Sri Lanka’s counter-terrorism investigation unit yesterday.

On this week 22 years ago, Sri Lankan soldiers burst into the home of Ida Camerlitta, a 21-year-old Tamil woman, in Mannar. They gang raped her and shot her dead, in what was yet another example of horrific crimes committed by the military. To this day, the soldiers responsible for her rape and killing continue to roam free. 

On the 12^th of July 1999, armed Sri Lankan soldiers stormed into Ida Camerlitta’s home in Pallimunai. Her whole family, including her mother, were inside at the time.

The soldiers beat and tied up some of those who were inside the home. They then proceeded to rape Ida, before shooting her dead.

Her post-mortem revealed 18 injuries across her body, including injuries from sexual violence and bite wounds on her breasts and lips. She had been stabbed in the abdomen and then shot through her genitals.

According to a Bloomberg model, Sri Lanka’s default probability was the highest in Asia with the organisation estimating a 27.9% chance of one-year default. 

Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers’ Union, Joseph Stalin, and ten other people have been forcibly detained in a Sri Lankan army quarantine centre for their protest against the "Sir John Kotelawala National Defence University Bill".

The arrests came on Thursday as demonstrators protesters near Sri Lanka's parliament. Demonstrators have criticised the bill as a move to "militarise the universities on the island". Stalin has since been released on bail.