Sri Lankan terror police arrested Dr S Sivaruban, the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) at Palai Hospital in Kilinochchi, alleging he had links to terrorist activities.

Dr Sivaruban was arrested in the Elephant Pass area by Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) officials at around 8.30pm on Sunday and then taken to his workplace Palai Hospital, which the TID subjected to a two-hour search.

Following the search, a colleague of Dr Sivaruban’s was called upon by the TID and made to take over his duties.

While Dr Sivaruban remains in detention reportedly with TID in Jaffna, Palai residents protested on Tuesday calling for his release.

Sri Lanka’s wildlife department has taken over crop fields owned by Tamils and declared them as a wildlife sanctuary, despite the owners possessing centuries-old deeds for the lands.

Residents of Kokkuthoduvai, a village of Mullaitivu District bordering Trincomalee have been distressed by the wildlife’s department’s seizing of their fields in Vellai Kalladi, Thimunthal, Kunchukaalveli and Kottaikeni and erecting boards declaring them state-owned sanctuary land.

 “In 1984, people of our village were systemically driven out by Sinhalese thugs and the whole village got displaced. Afterwards the Mahaweli ‘L’ zone was created under the name of Weli Oya and 1036 acres of our lands with tanks were seized and given to Sinhalese people,” said Sivalingam, a resident and member of the Karaithuraipattu (Maritimepattu) Divisional Council.

The Sri Lankan government has lashed out against international criticism of the promotion of alleged war criminal to the post of army commander.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that “foreign entities trying to influence the decisions and internal administrative processes of public service promotions in Sri Lanka is unwarranted and unacceptable.”

Despite widespread criticism of the appointment of Shavendra Silva to second-in-command of the Sri Lankan army earlier this year, the war crimes-accused general was promoted to army commander by the Sri Lankan president on Monday.

Residents of a Vavuniya village protested against the Sri Lankan forest department’s land-grabs last month.

Protesting in front of the old mosque in Sooduventhapulavu, the villagers said that the forest department had declared 428 acres of land under its jurisdiction. However this land belonged to and was cultivated by the villagers since 1974.

A complaint filed by the Sri Lankan police against a Tamil politician for ‘breach of peace’ was dismissed by the Mullaitivu magistrate’s court on first hearing.

Mulliyavalai police had filed a case against Karaithuraipatru (Maritimepattu) Divisional Council (PS) member Thavarasa Amalan claiming he had breached the peace, after he had taken journalists to a well to expose how Sri Lankan military forces were exploiting the public water source.

The specific incident had occurred in October but had been preceded by ongoing disputes between locals of Kanukkeni West and the military, who locals accuse of pumping out millions of litres of ground water from the tube well and causing pollution and damage to the rest of the area’s water supplies.

Locals of Oddusuddan, Mullaitivu are concerned about threats to the ancient Vavettimalai hill, whose history intertwines with the district’s iconic Thanthondreeswarar temple. Large scale stone mining in the area is destroying the hill’s archaeological and spiritual characteristics, locals say.

The massacre of 53 schoolgirls by the Sri Lankan air force was remembered in the Tamil homeland on Wednesday on the thirteenth anniversary of the attack.

On 14 August 2006, 53 schoolgirls and three teachers in Mullaitivu were killed by the Sri Lankan air force who bombed the Sencholai school in Vallipunam.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary, who oversaw the military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils in Mullivaikkal, officially launched his presidential bid this week.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa accepted the nomination made by his brother and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa to represent the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna as its presidential candidate.