Sri Lanka’s North Western province descended into unbridled violence today, as Sinhalese mobs attacked several mosques, set ablaze shops and stoned Muslim homes in the Kurungela District.

Initially calling for a curfew in six villages in the district, police imposed an island-wide curfew as the violence spread.

Sri Lanka's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe has denied the government was protecting ministers or parliamentarians supportive of terrorist groups, instead calling for people with information to come forward. 

Sri Lankan police imposed a curfew yesterday on Chilaw after widespread violence targetting Muslim homes, businesses and mosques. 

The University of Jaffna has been closed until further notice, the university’s registrar announced on Friday.

Students would be informed of the university’s reopening through the local press he said.

Two student union leaders and a canteen owner were arrested during a military search of the campus on May 3 and are currently being detained under PTA regulations for allegedly possessing photographs of LTTE figures. 

Foreign investors sold Rs 10.8 billion in the week up to May 8, bringing the total foreign investor bonds to Rs 143.7 billion.

The high outflow follows the Easter Sunday suicide bombings by Islamist extremists, targetting luxury hotels popular with tourists and business people, as well as churches. 

Sri Lanka's economy had already been struggling following the president's sudden sacking of the prime minister last year and his decision to unilaterally dissolve parliament. 

The International Monetary Fund this week agreed to extend its funding programme for Sri Lanka by a further year until June 2020. 

A journalist of the Thinakaran newspaper was arrested on Thursday for being in possession of newspaper cuttings featuring one of the suicide bombers, Zahran Hashim, responsible for the bombing of the Shangri-La hotel during the Easter Sunday attacks. 

The clippings of Zahran, the leader of the now banned National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), were found by police officers conducting a bag search. 

The journalist was released on bail today following 3 days in detention. 

 

The start of Tamil Genocide Remembrance week was marked today in the North-East, one week before May 18, when Tamils worldwide mark 10 years since the massacre of Mullivaikkal. 

The former LTTE cadre known as Ajanthan who was detained for six months under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in connection with the murder of two police officers in Batticaloa has been released by the Batticaloa Magistrate’s Court.

The release followed an order from the Sri Lankan president following pressure from Tamil political leaders.

On November 30 last year two police officers had been shot and stabbed to death at a checkpoint in Vavunathivu.

The International Monetary Fund has agreed to extend its funding programme for Sri Lanka by a further year until June 2020. 

"On the substance of IMF help, we have a programme with Sri Lanka that is ongoing and indeed next week, our executive board would consider the request from the authorities to complete the fifth review under our programme," the IMF Communications Department Director, Gerry Rice, said. 

<p>A Muslim preacher from Vavuniya was arrested at Colombo airport this morning.</p> <p>Sri Lankan police had been looking to question Munajib Mawlawi of Cheddikulam-Muthaliyarkulam over videos posted to his Facebook following the Easter Sunday terror attacks in Batticaloa and Colombo.</p> <p>He was arrested on his return from Saudi Arabia.</p> <p>Police said he would be produced before the Negombo court following investigations.</p>