Five Buddhist groups have filed a petition against the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and its member organisation, Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) accusing the organisations of advocating secession in their manifesto, reported FT.lk. 

The petition was filed at court this week and a date set for November 21. 

The deputy chairman of the Northern Provincial Council passed away on Saturday morning after suffering an acciden whilst riding his motorcycle to Mullaitivu.  

He is believed to have suffered a heart attack following an accident and was pronounced dead at Mancholai hospital. 
 

Photographs have emerged of Sinhala Buddhist protesters brandishing death threats to the Northern Province Chief Minister during a demonstration in Vavuniya this week.

“We all need to live in peace or you rest in peace,” threatened one placard held by a protester.

The leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) looked to assure Sinhala Buddhists that any new constitution for the island will not threaten Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

Rauf Hakeem stated that a new constitution will not divide the island and that it would not be a threat to Sinhala Buddhists on the island.

See more from Colombo Gazette here.

The Sri Lankan army has backtracked on its earlier admission that it kept a list of surrendering LTTE cadres in a court hearing this week, with a military commander "flatly denying" its existence.

The Sri Lankan Freedom Party's senior vice president, Nimal Siripala de Silva on Thursday accused the chief minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran of inciting ethnic tensions during his speech at the mass Tamil rally on September 24, Ezhuka Tamil. 

Buddhist monks from the Sinhala nationalist group, Bodu Bala Sena led a protest in Vavuniya on Friday against the mass Tamil rally that took place last weekend, Ezhuka Tamil.

The Sri Lankan Federal Party (SLFP) on Thursday categorically rejected the inclusion of foreign judges in any accountability mechanism and said it would never support a federal structure. 

The commander of the Sri Lankn army warned that the military will “do what it must” in response to comments made by Northern Province Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran.

Sri Lanka slid down 3 positions in the World Economic Forum (WEF) competitiveness index to 71st out of 138 countries.

Whilst South Asia continued an upward trend in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) Sri Lanka, received a rating of 4.19 out of 7, which saw it drop 3 places.

Summarising Sri Lanka’s position the report said,

A man employed by a newly constructed Buddhist vihara in Trincomalee has been arrested over a case of possible arson, after a neighbouring Hindu temple was set alight this week.

The man, Saman Nanayakkara from Kandy, is accused of setting fire to the Malai Neeli Ammam temple.

Sri Lanka's deputy minister of public enterprise developement, Eran Wickramaratne on Monday rejected media reports which said the finance minister was being harrassed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Local media had quoted the finance minister, Ravi Karunanayake as saying, "we have another 55 days for the budget, and as the finance minister, I get harassed, by nobody else than the IMF." 

Five Sri Lankan army soldiers have been remanded over the murder of two Tamil youth in Jaffna, 18 years after their deaths.

Jaffna District Court Judge S Satheeskaran ordered the troops to be remanded until October 10, and also called on Achchuveli Police to produce 11 other soldiers in court suspected to have had involvement in the murders.

Rejecting the statement made by the chief minister of the Northern province at the mass Tamil rally on Saturday, the Jathika Hela Urumaya on Tuesday called on the government to make a counter statement against what it described as "baseless allegations".