The Sri Lanka army has held several events in Tamil schools across the North-East this month, as uniformed soldiers were seen giving handouts to Tamil schoolchildren.

The events, where senior military commanders are invited as chief guests and garlanded, before being photographed handing out schools upplies to tamil children, have come under fire as part of the state’s extensive miltiarisation of civilian life in the region.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa president announced that he will further expand the role of the defence department, as he assigned the Immigration and Emigration Department to Defence State Minister, and brother, Chamal Rajapaksa.

The move further expands the control of the powerful defence department, which already was granted control of state institutions that govern for non-governmental organisations, as well as the technology, telecommunications and media agencies.

Journalists in Batticaloa gathered at the Gandhi Park on Saturday to remember their colleague Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan, who was shot dead in Trincomalee after exposing the Sri Lankan Special Task Force's killing of 5 Tamil students, in a case that has been dubbed the 'Trinco 5'. 

At least 11 people have been arrested after the Sri Lankan army launched two days of search operations in Vavuniya this week, as security continues to remain tight in the Tamil homeland

Stop and search operations were conducted in Puliyankulam, Omanthai and the other adjoining areas of Vavuniya, though the police and army did not cite any specific reason for launching the operations.

<p>Tests for coronavirus on patients in Colombo have all come back as negative so far, according to the Sri Lankan government.</p> <p>Four people including a Sri Lankan medical student who travelled to the Wuhan province and three Chinese nationals with suspected symptoms of coronavirus had been admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in the south.</p> <p>Fifty-six people have died from the virus in China so far.</p>

<p>A Tamil shop owner arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for selling a CD with LTTE songs has been released on bail after his lawyer appealed to Sri Lanka’s attorney general.</p> <p>Another Tamil man arrested for purchasing the CD and playing it remains in remand after a year.</p> <p>The shop owner Kanthasamy Ariharan was granted bail on Thursday, while the buyer Gunapalasingham Gunaseelan remains in detention.</p> <p>They were arrested on January 14, 2019.</p>

A Sri Lankan soldier was beaten by a crowd of Vavuniya residents after he sexually harassed a woman in front of her home in Nochchimoddai.

The woman says he urinated in front of her house and then exposed his genitals while calling her over.

Sri Lanka’s president released a statement on Friday criticising “certain international media channels” and denying he had acknowledged that over 20,000 Tamils who were forcibly disappeared during the final stages of the armed conflict had been killed.

The statement from the president’s office came amid the uproar that erupted from Rajapaksa’s comments from his meeting with UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Hanaa Singer. In the meeting, Rajapaksa said “he explained that these missing persons are actually dead”, according to the official media division of the Sri Lankan president.  

The Sri Lankan military has arrested at least one Tamil youth, after conducting search raids in Valvettithurai on Thursday.

The youth, identified as 28-year-old Padmanabhan Sindhuraj, was at home when the military raided the property, allegedly searching for his brother. 

It is reported they were searching for the Tamil man in connection with a clash between local Tamils and soldiers in Nagarkovil last week.

Sindhuraj has since been detained by Point Pedro Police.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) attempted to pressure the families of the disappeared to end their campaign for accountability, as they interrogated a protest leader in Colombo last week.