A Sri Lankan brigadier who had been previously removed from a posting due to links with military-backed gangs causing unrest in Jaffna, has been appointed the head of State Intelligence Service (SIS) by Sri Lanka’s new president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The lower house of the Indian parliament, Lok Sabha, passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) on Monday which lets India grant citizenship to non-Muslim minorities fleeing persecution in neighbouring Muslim countries.

After 12 hours of deliberations, the bill was approved 311 to 80 votes by the Lok Sabha and moves onto the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, where a favourable vote will ratify the CAB to be recognised as law.    

The heavily disputed bill will be established to give citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Tens of thousands of people have been affected by heavy floods that have struck this North-east this month, leaving homes devastated, and several dead or missing.

Official Sri Lankan government figures state that 42,782 have been affected by the floods in the Northern Province, and 88,011 in the Eastern Province, making it the hardest hit across the whole island.

Sri Lanka’s United National Party (UNP) joined other senior Sri Lankan politicians in condemning the Conservative Party manifesto in Britain, calling for it to be amended just days before the UK’s general election.

UNP National Organiser and Member of Parliament Navin Dissanayake claimed that the “Conservative party should understand that Sri Lanka was one of the few countries which backed the UK in its war against Argentina in the 1980s”.

Sri Lanka’s new defence secretary warned that “LTTE ideology” remained active, as he pledged that Sri Lanka’s military would have a “bigger role to play” in years to come.

Kamal Gunaratne, who stands accused of overseeing war crimes himself, told troops at Sri Lanka’s new army headquarters that “still we have to remember that LTTE ideology continues to remain”.

Families of the disappeared rallied across the North-East today to mark International Human Rights Day. Families demonstrated in districts across the Tamil homeland, supported by Tamil politicians and members of the public.