^{Photograph: Tamil protestors in Colombo, 1956, shortly before they were attacked by Sinhala mobs. (Courtesy Victor Ivan)}

This week marks 65 years since Sri Lanka’s first anti-Tamil pogroms, when government backed Sinhala mobs murdered more than 150 Tamils across the island – the first of many massacres that were to take place in the decades to come.

The EU parliament has passed a new resolution on Sri Lanka expressing “serious concern at the rapid deterioration of human rights” on the island and urging the Council to consider targeted sanctions against senior Sri Lanka officials accused of war crimes.

The resolution also calls on the Council to investigate and prosecute war crime abuses; to suspend funding for the training of Sri Lanka’s security forces; and to suspend the favourable trading preferences granted by the GSP+ agreement.

Former Northern Provincial Council member Durairasa Ravikaran called for Sri Lankan state forces to take accountability and impose sanctions on those who are repeatedly violating COVID-19 protocols by travelling from the South to the North-East.

In a scathing report, Amnesty International slams Sri Lanka’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic highlighting the gag order on the health care sector; the prioritisation of those with economic or political privilege at the expense of at-risk groups; the abuse of factory workers and prisoners; as well as the lack of a comprehensive plan to vaccinate the whole population.

Sri Lankan police officers have arrested individuals across Jaffna for allegedly “violating the travel ban” and interrogated for their purpose of travel.

The operation, which was led by the Jaffna Police Headquarters, was carried out in the town of Jaffna and neighbouring areas today.

A small Hindu temple on a street in Jaffna, near the A9 highway linking Jaffna and Kandy, was found destroyed on Tuesday morning.

The Pillaiyar statue was damaged and the temple, located between Kodikamam and Mirusuvil, was completely broken down on Monday night by unknown culprits and discovered by the nearby residents on the following morning.

Sri Lankan police have arrested ten people, including the provincial council’s deputy chairman for Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu, following protests against the reopening of a garment factory amidst fears of the COVID-19 pandemic spreading. 

The Vavuniya campus of University of Jaffna has been converted into a separate state university and established as the "University of Vavuniya, Sri Lanka".   

The establishment was notified through a government extraordinary gazette signed by Sri Lankan Education Minister, Professor G.L. Peiris, yesterday. 

The gazette said that the change would come into effect from August 1 2021, from which the university would be formally known as the University of Vavuniya.

Dozens of activists and members of the Tamil community in Germany staged a protest outside a detention centre in Pforzheim, as German authorities deported an estimated 20-23 Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka despite the risk of persecution and torture that they face on the island.

Local Tamil activists alongside those from Amnesty International and other human rights organisations protesting outside the detention centre in an attempt to block the move for more than 70 hours. Despite this, the deportations took place yesterday.

Swiss Tamil activist group, “Phoenix - the Next Generation”, has spoken out against Switzerland’s proposed “Police Measures to Counter Terrorism” (PMT) which they warn will repress Tamil activists.