Fisherfolk in Mullaitivu District staged a protest, calling on authorities to take immediate steps to prohibit illegal fishing activities that they say are devastating livelihoods along the coast of the Tamil homeland.

A memorial commemoration for the late Tamil journalist Punniyamurthy Sathiyamoorthy was held at the Mullaitivu press club, with journalists and civil society figures gathering to pay tribute to his life and work.

Member of Parliament Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam has raised serious concerns over the conduct of Sri Lankan police following the fatal shooting of a Tamil teenager in Jaffna, warning that those accused of wrongdoing are often the very ones tasked with investigating it.

The Myiliddy Resettlement Development Committee has submitted a memorandum to the Jaffna District Secretary urging the expedited release of privately owned lands that remain under the control of the Sri Lankan security forces.

A signature campaign calling for the repeal of Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the withdrawal of proposed new legislation was launched in Jaffna this week under the theme “Neither the old nor the new”.

Sri Lanka’s government has pledged to release a portion of privately owned lands in Valikamam North, Jaffna, ahead of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April, even as the wider military occupation of the Tamil homeland remains firmly in place.

A group of twenty-five Indian fishermen who had entered waters off Kankesanthurai and engaged in fishing activities have been arrested by Sri Lankan naval personnel, as Eelam Tamils complained of a growing number of incursions.

Hardline Sinhala nationalist Wimal Weerawansa has accused Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake of failing to confront "separatism", in a speech delivered in Matara, a southern district often viewed as a bastion of Sinhala nationalist politics. Addressing a gathering of supporters, Weerawansa argued that Buddhism stands apart from other faiths because it does not produce extremist movements.

Sri Lanka’s Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne, is facing mounting political pressure after the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) decided to initiate a formal investigation into complaints lodged against him, intensifying scrutiny of the head of the legislature and chair of the Constitutional Council.

The UK's Deputy Prime Minster David Lammy is expected to visit Sri Lanka on Tuesday to meet with the island's leaders.