A joint search operation; involving army, special task force (STF) and police officers, was carried out in Kurunagar, Jaffna between 5:30 am and 6:00 am today, as military surveilance in the North continues. 

The police ordered an unexpected round-up of the local residents, in which no suspects were arrested and no suspicious items were recovered. Police officials insisted that these operations were carried out for the sake of national security.

Sri Lankan police officers have arrested a Tamil youth in Batticaloa over the alleged possession of a T-56 rifle last week.

The youth, identified as 24-year-old Kumarapodi Thanujan, was arrested after Sri Lanka's Special Task Force conducted a raid on Saturday at 10 pm in the Valaichchenai area.

The Sri Lankan government is “unleashing a chilling process of repression targeting critics and human rights defenders,” said a report by the International Truth and Justice Project – Sri Lanka (ITJP) and Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS), which documented at least 69 recent incidents of intimidation and threats

The former Chief Minister of the North held talks with top South Indian actor Rajinikanth on Saturday.

C V Wigneswaran paid the Kollywood icon a visit at his home in Chennai to discuss issues facing Tamils in Eelam and in Tamil Nadu.

He reportedly extended an invite to Rajinikanth and requested that he meet Eelam Tamils in the homeland.

The Sri Lankan government is reportedly set to release a soldier who was sentenced to death over the massacre of eight Tamil civilians, according to an opposition parliamentarian who applauded the move.

A Sri Lankan navy truck has killed one Tamil man and seriously injured another, after a road collision in Mullaitivu earlier this morning.

The vehicle, from the Gotabaya Navy Camp in Mullaitivu, was driving near Vadduvakal Bridge on the Mullaitivu - Paranthen main road, when it was involved in a collision. 

A protest in Jaffna called for the release of Tamil political prisoners who have been jailed in prisons across the island, following the death of one Tamil man after 26 years of imprisonment.

The killing of eleven Tamils by Sri Lankan police officers at the 1974 World Tamil Research Conference in Jaffna was remembered today.

Sri Lanka should replace the abusive Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with legislation that respects international human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

The call comes after the Sri Lankan president announced last week that his government would scrap plans to replace the law.

TNA parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran warned that the island may step “into naked majoritarianism” unless the equal status of all peoples on the island was respected, pointing out that repeated assurances had been made to India to the Tamil people that a political solution would be found to the ethnic conflict.

Tamil National Alliance leader R Sampanthan has praised Sri Lanka’s war crimes accused president, calling him someone “who is prepared to speak the truth and to do the right thing” in a speech to parliament earlier this week, where he outlined the international community’s role in a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.

Sri Lanka’s Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) have summoned the head of Vavuniya’s families of the disappeared association and her husband for questioning this week, as activists continue to report harassment from state authorities.

Sri Lankan intelligence officers have erased a mural after they threatened local Tamil artists in Jaffna this week, following a youth street art initiative included a painting of a tiger on a wall in Valvettithurai.

Street art initiatives have taken place across the island with many in the North-East using it as an opportunity to express various aspects of Tamil culture. In Jaffna, images of the famous Jaffna Library and other landmarks were painted on walls.

However, as young artists began to paint a mural in Valvettithurai, part of which included the image of a wild tiger, Sri Lankan intelligence and police officials began to threaten them.