Professor Lukman Thalib can still vividly remember that day his home was raided. As the head of the Department of Public Health at Qatar University and a member of the country’s Scientific Committee against Covid-19, the highly respected Australian public health professor was chairing a meeting on Zoom, when he heard his wife screaming downstairs.

“I came down and there were 4 to 5 people in plain clothes inside my house,” he says. “It was as though they took over my house… We were terrified.”

An Israeli weapons manufacturer announced that the Sri Lankan military has signed a new US$50 million contract this week, in a move that will see Colombo’s infamous Kfir bomber jets revamped and upgraded.

Kfir jets, which have been extensively used by the Sri Lankan Air Force to carry out bombing raids across the North-East, have killed thousands of Tamils throughout the years. The use of the aircraft became so prevalent that for Tamils the name Kfir, Hebrew for "Lion Cub", became synonymous with all the aircraft used by the Sri Lankan military during attacks on the Tamil homeland.

^{Scene of shooting - MP Sathasivam Vivalendiran House}

A Tamil man has been shot in the head by security forces outside of the Sri Lankan Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Sathasivam Viyalendiran's house in Batticaloa earlier today.

Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, has met with India’s Prime Minister and the leader of the main opposition party, Sonia Gandhi, to put forwards the demands of Tamil Nadu.

A key demand of which is for:

“Eelam Tamils to have equal civil and political rights”

^{Photograph: Tamil protestors in Colombo, 1956, shortly before they were attacked by Sinhala mobs. (Courtesy Victor Ivan)}

This week marks 65 years since Sri Lanka’s first anti-Tamil pogroms, when government backed Sinhala mobs murdered more than 150 Tamils across the island – the first of many massacres that were to take place in the decades to come.

A landmark decision from a British tribunal found that Tamils who engage in a range of political activities in the United Kingdom may continue to face “a real risk of ill-treatment or harm” if deported to Sri Lanka, in a significant ruling that clarifies and expands those who may face persecution on the island.

The ruling, which centred on the asylum appeal of two Tamil refugees in the UK, known as KK and RS, importantly expands the criteria of those who may be at risk in Sri Lanka, taking into account a range of activities from posting on social media, to attendance at commemorative events and even signing petitions that could be “perceived as being anti-government”.

Chandran Vithusan, 22

A young Tamil man, who was arrested by the Sri Lankan Intelligence Division last night at a house in East Iruthayapuram, Batticaloa, has died in detention this morning. 

The body of Chandran Vithusan, 22, who was arrested outside his house in East Iruthayapuram by people who identified themselves as intelligence officers at 10.30pm last night, has been handed over this morning. 

Vigils and memorials to the tens of thousands massacred by the Sri Lankan state at Mullivaikkal have taken place across the Tamil homeland, despite an onslaught by the Sri Lankan state in recent days to prevent commemorations.

Sri Lankan army locks down Mullaitivu on eve of Tamil Genocide commemorations

Marking 12 years since the Sri Lankan military onslaught that massacred tens of thousands of Tamils, we revisit the final days leading up to the 18th of May 2009 – a date remembered around the world as ‘Tamil Genocide Day’. The total number of Tamil civilians killed during the final months is widely contested.

Watch live as Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYOUK) and UK Tamil societies come together to remember those killed in the genocide of Tamils by the Sri Lankan state in 2009.