Despite insistence from the newly elected Indian Prime Minister that a political solution to the ethnic conflict must go beyond the 13th Amendment, the Sri Lankan government said today that a Parliamentary Select Committee would address the matter and determine the way forward, reports the Island.

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s position is that a solution to the issue should be evolved only through the PSC," Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told a press conference at the party head office today.

The Tamil National Alliance has written to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa, congratulating her on election victory and welcoming her continued concern regarding the Tamil question on the island, earlier this week.

The letter, sent earlier this week, called the AIADMK victory “an astounding achievement and is indicative of the influence which you [Jayalalithaa] have the capacity to wield”.

India should facilitate a UN investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka said Amnesty International India's Advocacy Co-ordinator, in a piece published in the Economic Times.

Raghu Menon, in his piece 'Sri Lanka: sifting through the killing fields', noted the Sri Lankan government's “aggressive campaign” against accountability and called on India to take the lead on delivering justice.

Menon stated,

A protest against landgrabs by the Sri Lankan military, organised by the Tamil National People’s Front and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, concluded earlier today in Kilinochchi, despite the detention of the party’s regional coordinator last week by the Sri Lankan army.

Protestors called for the release of Thangavel Jegatheeswaran, who was arrested after defying threats by army officials, who demanded that this demonstration be cancelled.

Human Rights Watch has called on Malaysian authorities to assure the safety of three men who were arrested and forcibly deported from the country and sent to Sri Lanka this week.

The three men, who are currently being detained by the government's Terrorist Investigation Division in Kilinochchi, are supposed to have been under the protection of the UN agency for refugees. They were arrested by Malaysian authorities for “terrorism”, before being deported to Sri Lanka.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch said,

Sri Lankan security forces arrested 77 Tamils since March of this year, as part of a crackdown across the North-East, reported the Jaffna daily newspaper the Uthayan.

The arrests have taken place from the 6th of March, under the government premise that the suspects are working on the regrouping of the LTTE.

Just weeks after the first arrests took place, the UN Human Rights Council passed a third successive resolution on Sri Lanka, initiating a UNHCHR investigation into allegations of human rights abuses. 

Investigations are currently taking place into a further 47 suspects, including 6 women.

The Hindu Rights Action Force, a coalition of religious non-governmental organisations in Malaysia has condemned the arrest and deportation to Sri Lanka of three Tamil refugees, accusing the government of colluding with a mass murderer.

Hindraf national chairman P Waythamoorthy stated,

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence rejected demands made by demonstrators in Kilinochchi day who were calling for their land to be returned to them, stating that the land did not belong to the people.

Asserting that the demonstrators originated from Chavakachcheri, not Kilinochchi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya, went on to state that the land was "captured by the army from the LTTE" and the protesters had no legal right to it.

Buddhist monks occupied the Ministry of Religious Affairs today, staging a sit down protest inside the building against the recently formed police unit dedicated to dealing with religious affairs, reported Al Jazeera.