A Tamil family’s house burned to ashes in a housefire earlier today in the Kaiveli resettlement area in Mullaitivu.

Speaking to the media, Senior DIG Attorney Ajith Rohana admitted that “under no circumstances” would they separate a married couple in cases of domestic abuse.

Sri Lankan Public Security Minister, Sarath Weerasekara, has instructed the police to remain calm when dealing with protesters.

Sri Lankan police have arrested five student activists including the Convener of the Inter-University Students’ Federation Wasantha Mudalige and President of the Jayewardenepura University Students’ Union Amila Sandeepa following protests against the controversial Kotelawala National Defence University (or KDU) Bill.

Responding to concerns raised by the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz, CHEC Port City Colombo has decried her statement as “misleading” and maintained that neither itself nor its parent company China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) are listed under United States sanctions.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) drew attention to rising police brutality, custodial and extra-judicial killings in Sri Lanka in a report released on Friday. “Sri Lanka’s police are increasingly killing and abusing people under cover of the Covid-19 pandemic measures and an anti-drug campaign,” it said. 

^{File photo: Basil Rajapaksa - Minister of Finance}

Health workers gathered in front of the Northern Provincial Council office to demand the Sri Lankan government to improve working conditions, including higher allowances.

Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered for prison authorities to permit lawyers access to jailed Muslim poet, Ahnaf Jazeem, who remains detained at Colombo Remand Prison under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Sri Lankan Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva has called for the banning or “reforming” of social media platforms including Facebook in parliament today.

In his address, he drew upon China’s as a model for Sri Lanka highlighting those social media platforms are prohibited from operating in China.

Speaking in parliament yesterday, Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) leader C.V. Wigneswaran criticised the government’s handling of the economic crisis and highlighted how Tamil communities in the North-East have suffered due to their policies and the military occupation of their land.

^{Petition sent to the Mannar Divisional Secretary}

Hundreds of locals in the village of Uppukulam in Mannar have been left without their state-designated COVID-19 relief items after they were handed out to a select few favoured personnel instead.  

Image courtesy of Action Contre la Faim (ACF)

On this day 15 years ago, Sri Lankan security forces summarily executed 17 aid workers from the French NGO, Action la Contre Faim (ACF), in Muttur, Trincomalee.