Tamil Nadu state government is to issue biometric identity cards to Eelam Tamil refugees living within camps, the Hindu reports.

According to officials the new system, due to start in September, is to ensure cash hand outs are given to the correct individual.

The cards will contain biometric information such as the fingerprints of the individual. All adults in the refugee camps will also have an account registered with the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), the paper reported.

Sri Lankan police have arrested a person on suspicion of sexually harassing a 20 year old British woman, in Arugam Bay, according to Sri Lanka Mirror.

According to the police, the incident took place near the Kudakalli area of Arugam Bay on Tuesday night and the suspect will be produced before the court today.

A celebration at a church in the High Security Zone in Palali has been facilitated by the Sri Lankan Army, after a request by a priest, reported the army’s Jaffna command website.

Over 500 people are reported to have attended the centenary celebrations of St James’ Church, which lies within the militarised High Security Zone around Palali South.

Permission to enter the HSZ was granted by Jaffna Commander Major General Udaya Perera after a request by Fr. Anton Bala of St. Joseph’s church in Atchuvely.

Marking the 31st anniversary of Black July, an anti-Tamil pogram that saw over 3000 Tamils killed by state-sponsored Sinhala mobs, the US based advocacy group, USTPAC, stressed that violence against Tamils continues in the North-East where Tamils live under occupation.

“Black July was a watershed event that signaled to the Tamils that they would have only a subservient place in a Sri Lanka ruled by the majority Sinhala Buddhists, for their exclusive benefit,” said USTPAC President, Dr Karunyan Arulanantham.

"Tamil lands are expropriated, Tamils are denied the right to mourn their dead, Tamil children and women are raped with impunity, all while an ex-military governor appointed by the president holds executive authority and the largest military per capita in Asia is stationed in the traditional Tamil homelands," he added.
 

Sri Lanka’s navy has arrested 50 fishermen and seized seven trawlers from Tamil Nadu off the coast of Jaffna, accusing them of poaching in Sri Lankan waters.

There are already 38 Indian fishermen and 55 trawlers in Sri Lankan custody, according to The Hindu.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa last week called on Prime Minister Modi to secure the release of the fishermen describing it as a "deliberate strategy of the Sri Lankan government to destroy the primary means of livelihood of Indian fishermen."

The Jaffna Press Club “strongly condemns” the treatment meted out by the military to Tamil journalists, travelling to a work shop in Colombo, and accused the Sri Lankan security forces of deliberately placing marijuana in the vehicle they were travelling in.

In a statement, the group said that Sri Lanka is “committed to preventing journalists from the North from fostering a relationship with journalists in the south in every way [and] repressing them by any means available”.

“On one hand, as the Sri Lankan government is trying to portray the journalists of the [Jaffna] peninsula as terrorists, on the other, it is taking measures to ensure their circle of contacts does not widen,” the statement charged.

The statement described how the journalists were followed by vehicles, from Jaffna, before being stopped at Maankulam and Omanthai, by members of the police and the military.