Muslims rallied in Vavuniya on Saturday to protest against Sri Lanka's compulsory cremation policy as outrage continues across the island. 

Protesters condemned the Sri Lankan government for denying Muslims the right to bury those suspected to have died from COVID-19, directly violating traditional Islamic burial rights. 

Amidst coronavirus restrictions and an increased Sri Lankan military presence, Tamils across the North-East marked Christmas at churches across the homeland this week.

See photographs from various ceremonies and celebrations below.

Sri Lankan army commander and accused war criminal, Shavendra Silva, was promoted to the rank of General.

The people of the village of Aasikulam, Vavuniya stressed the hardships caused by the Sri Lankan Forest Department seizing their land earlier this month, with around 50 families stating they had been affected.  

Locals staged a protest in Mannar, against mineral excavation by an Australian-based company in the region.

The protest organised by Mannar Citizens Committee and Mannar Environmental Protection Authority (MENA) was staged in front of Mannar city bus stand yesterday, and was attended by religious leaders, representatives of public organisations and women's organisations. Demonstrators ensured that social distancing measures and hygiene practices were maintained throughout the rally.

Sri Lanka’s notorious Special Task Force (STF), which has been implicated in numerous mass atrocities, is reported to have arrested suspected arms smugglers in Tunkama area in the town of Embilipitiya, located in the South of Sri Lanka.

Assassinated Tamil journalist, Ganapathipillai Thevarasa was remembered on December 25th, 35 years after his death. 

The event took place at the Eastern Journalists Union office in Batticaloa with the presence of journalists from the Eastern province and Ganapathipillai Pakiyarasa, a retired poet and brother of the deceased senior journalist.

Floral tributes and a flame were lighted in remembrance for Thevarasa. In his speech at the remembrance event Pakiyarasa stated:

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks staged a protest near the Presidential Secretariat today, demanding that the government continue its draconian policy of forced cremations, despite international backlash and guidance from World Health Organisation officials stressing that this was not needed to prevent coronavirus.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, former Sri Lankan Human Rights Commissioner, Ambika Satkunanathan, admitted that Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission could no longer be considered independent.

This statement follows Rajapaksa’s establishment of an all Sinhalese board to the Human Rights Commission in November under provisions of the recently passed 20th Amendment.

Satkunanathan told the paper:

Our track record, not just in relation to prison rights, but in relation to many human rights violations, is that we either have not inquired into violations or if we have inquired into them the "reports have not been impartial and objective or the reports have not been released or if the reports have been released no action has been taken to hold those responsible accountable for the violations”.

Accused war criminal and Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, Kamal Gunaratne, has pledged that “operations to curb illegal drugs rings in the island would be further strengthened during the next year”.