A memorial monument has been constructed in memory of the 31 people who perished in an attack on Zion Church in Batticaloa on Easter Sunday two years ago. 

The Australian government has supplied five aerial drones to the Sri Lankan police, despite international scrutiny at the United Nations Human Rights Council for its domestic “assault on justice.”

Sri Lanka’s Fishery Minister, and leader of the pro-government paramilitary Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), Douglas Devananda has maintained that the only solution to fishery disputes will be the continued detention of Indian fishermen.

^{A woman pays tribute at a church in Jaffna this morning.}

Today marks two years since a series of bomb attacks targeting churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday, killing 279 people and injured more than 500 others.

The attacks, staged by eight bombers who all killed themselves in the attack, saw eight blasts reported in total, attacking luxury hotels and churches in Colombo and Batticaloa. 

Hotels hit by explosions include the Shangri-La, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand hotels and one other, all in Colombo. The three churches struck were the Catholic Shrine of St. Anthony in Kotahena, Colombo, the Catholic Church of St. Sebastian in Negombo and the Zion Church in Batticaloa. At least 45 foreign nationals were amongst the dead.

Though the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, with the lesser-known jihadist group National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) involved, it soon emerged that Sri Lankan intelligence services were aware that an attack was due to take place on Easter Sunday.

The aftermath of the attack saw reports of senior Sri Lankan figures being complicit with the previously little known NTJ, mob violence against Muslims and a ramping up of militarisation and securitisation across the island that persists to this day.

Remembrance services were held across the North-East today to mark two years since the Easter Sunday attacks that killed 279 people and injured over 500 others. 

Writing to the leader of the AIADMK, M. Thambi Durai, India’s External Minister, S. Jaishankar emphasised the Indian governments demand that Sri Lanka fulfil its obligations to devolution, as stated under the 13^th amendment, by holding early elections to provincial councils.

Speaking in parliament today, Elliot Colburn, MP for Carshalton and Wallington, and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) welcomed the work of the British Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in bringing about the recent UN Human Rights Council resolution but questioned what further action was being taken.

The original monument unveiled in 2019 

The reconstructed Mullivaikkal memorial monument, located at the University of Jaffna,  is set to be unveiled on Friday, April 23, after it was destroyed by Sri Lankan authorities earlier this year. 

Today marks the sixteenth anniversary since the abduction and murder of Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram.

Sivaram, popularly known under his nom-de-plume Taraki, was abducted in front of Bambalipitiya police station in Colombo on April 28 and was found dead several hours later in a high security zone in Sri Lanka's capital, which at the time had a heavy police and military presence due to the ongoing conflict. His killers, highly suspected to be linked to the government of then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga, were never caught.

Annai Poopathy, the Tamil woman and mothers front activist who fasted to her death in protest of the Indian Army’s abuses in 1988, was commemorated across the Tamil homeland on the anniversary of her death on Monday.

Although Sri Lankan police had threatened Annai Poopathy’s family members against commemorating her at the monument to her memory in Kattankudy, Batticaloa, TNA politicians gathered there early on Monday morning to light candles and lay flowers.