10:17 BST

153 Tamil asylum seekers on a boat off Christmas island will be handed over to the Sri Lankan navy, a second senior navy official confirmed to The Australian on Wednesday.

Reports emerged on Tuesday that such a transfer in the mid-ocean was imminent, however, till now both the Australian government and the Sri Lankan navy have refused to acknowledge even the very presence of such a boat.

The transfer of the asylum seekers has been widely condemned with many rights organisations warning that Australia would be in breach of the UN Convention on Refugees if it were to proceed with such a move.

Four Tamil asylum seekers were arrested in India on Wednesday, after fleeing their homes in Vavuniya and Jaffna, reports PTI.

The refugees, Shanthi, Malar, Sabesh and Subbiah, said they were "forced to leave the island nation due to scarcity of food and high price of essential commodities there," when questioned by police.

They have been arrested on the ground of arriving in India without proper documents and on an illegal ferry, a senior police official told PTI. They have been detained in a refugee camp at Mandapam.

Skeletal remains and clothing of female LTTE cadres have reportedly been discovered in Muhamalai, in the Northern province earlier this week, according to the Jaffna daily Uthayan.

United Nations experts on freedom of religion, minority issues and summary executions, in a statement released Wednesday, urged Sri Lanka to stop Buddhist violence against other faiths and bring perpetrators of such violence to justice.

““This violence is fuelled by the atmosphere of impunity in Sri Lanka,” the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, said.

 “Impunity and inadequate response from the police and judicial authorities aimed at protecting the lives, physical security, the property and places of worship of these communities may encourage further attacks and a risk of spiralling violence,” he added.

The police security for four councillors in the Northern Provincial Council was withdrawn suddenly last week, with government officials citing a change in legislation, reports ColomboGazette.

According to the police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana, police security was withdrawn because a fresh application had to be made to the Ministry of Law and Order, which has been given responsibility to provide security for individuals.

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has denied any links to the Bodu Bala Sena, but questioned why the people calling for the police to take action against the group, were not calling for the arrest of Tamil Bishop Rayappu Joseph.

Rajapaksa, the brother of president Mahinda Rajapksa, told the Daily Mirror that he would resign if his involvement with the group was proven.

“I have nothing to do with the BBS. I have not at all been involved in any of this. All this is because of baseless accusations, and I will always say that some Muslim politicians and opposition politicians have put the blame on me. At the end the media has also done that. What facts do they have to say that? It’s very unfortunate that people write such baseless factless articles, that is very wrong. Because of these the international media believes they are true,” he said.

One of the three international experts appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to lead the international inquiry into mass atrocities in Sri Lanka, Asma Jahangir, expressed confidence in the inquiry's ability to deliver answers despite the Sri Lankan government's persistent refusal to cooperate, in an interview with BBC Tamil.

Highlighting her previous experience in conducting UN inquiries when governments refused to cooperate, Ms Jahangir said “we have provided very independent and reliable reports, and these have been accepted too”.

A lawyer from Pakistan, Ms Jahangir, is also a former President of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association and of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, as well as the previous holder of several Human Rights Council mandates and member of a recent fact-finding body into Israeli settlements.

"It will be a very difficult task for any government to stop people from contacting investigators," she said, warning the Sri Lankan government that any attempts to prevent people from testifying at the inquiry would only be detrimental to them.

“People will always find a way to collaborate with such inquiries," she added.

The inquiry will begin during the first or second week of August.

The full interview by BBC Tamil is translated below:

Asma Jahangir: Our role is within our mandate. We are basically supposed to be making recommendations to the High Commissioner. We will ensure that the inquiry will be independent and that human rights violations by all sides will be looked in an unbiased manner.

BBC Tamil: The Sri Lankan government has said that it will not cooperate with your inquiry. If it does not issue you a visa and prevents people from being able to contact you, how will you be able to conduct the inquiry?