The Bodu Bala Sena on Tuesday urged the Sri Lankan government to expel Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the country’s justice minister, over his recent comments about “Buddhist extremism”.

“We are ashamed of the President and government because Hakeem had condemned the Buddhists and the monks who brought the President into power,” BBS Secretary General Galagoda Gnanasara said, according to the Daily Mirror.

“If I am the leader I would have fired him,” he said.

The BBS said that recent statements made by Hakeem were dangerous and were an insult to Buddhists in the country.

The North-East of the island is under Sri Lankan military invasion, said the Tamil National Alliance spokesperson at a meeting Tuesday in Jaffna, reports Uthayan.

Speaking at the National Fishermen Cooperation Movement, MP Suresh Premachandran, citing several facts,  condemned the Sri Lankan government’s actions during the armed conflict and afterwards.

Mr Premachandran deplored the heightened military presence alleging that 75% of the Sri Lankan military was based in the North-East.

The leader of the PMK, an ally of India's ruling BJP in Tamil Nadu, said India should allow the UN investigative team to use Chennai as a base when conducting its inquiry into mass atrocities in Sri Lanka, the Times of India reports.

Meeting with her Sri Lankan counterpart last week, the Indian External Affairs Minister reportedly reiterated India's criticism of the UN inquiry.

Over a thousand women have left the main opposition party in Sri Lanka, the UNP, to join the main party of the ruling coalition, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

According to a report by Sri Lanka’s national broadcaster, the women obtained membership of the party headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a local party meeting in Kela Wewa held on Sunday morning.

The Sri Lankan government will pass a new law regarding non-governmental organisations by the end of the year, in response to NGOs rejecting a recent government letter, which restricted their activities, the Daily Mirror reported on Monday.

The new law will require NGOs to register with the National Secretariat for NGOs, which comes under the purview of the defence ministry headed by Gothabaya Rajapaksa.

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka has announced that it is changing the colour of the burqa, a garment worn by some Muslim women around the world, from black to “simple pleasing pastel shades”, nearly a month after attacks on Muslims by Sinhala Buddhists in the south of the country.

Vice President of the MCSL, Hilmy Ahmed, said that they would hand out free burqas and claimed that this was not a knee-jerk reaction to the recent violence or threats by the Bodu Bala Sena against Muslim clothing, reported Ceylon Today.

"The dark garb has been heavily criticised by various quarters the world over and is even related to Wahhabism, but we too feel it is unnecessary, as the visibility of those who don it is very high on the streets and when interacting with people and when using public transport persons could be intimidated or targeted," he said.