Muslims in Sri Lanka continue to face the threat of mob violence and arbitrary arrests amongst other abuses warned Human Rights Watch (HRW) today, as it called on the government to do more to protect the Muslim community.

Sri Lanka’s newly hired hangmen are “ready for the job,” said a prison official this week, as president Maithripala Sirisena vowed to press ahead with executions despite widespread international outcry.

Bandula Jayasinghe, an official at the Justice and Prison Reforms Ministry, told Arab News that the two executioners “have been fully trained”.

Sri Lanka’s tourist industry is still struggling to recover from the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks, with arrival numbers dropping by more than half from last year.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said there were just 63,072 tourist visits to Sri Lanka last month, a drop of 57% from June 2018, when the number was 146,828. Tourist numbers in May had fallen 70.8% to 37,802 compared with 129,466 a year ago

Trincomalee Chief Magistrate, M.Hansa, delivered the verdict today acquitting 13 Special Task Force members who were suspected of executing five Tamil youth whilst they spent an afternoon at Trincomalee beach on 2 January 2006.

Fifteen charges were filed against suspects and they were released due to the lack of evidence.

Sri Lankan police arrested the country’s police chief and its former defence minister on Tuesday, for alleged negligence over the Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed over 250 people.

Tamils protested in Jaffna on Tuesday demanding the release of political prisoners, following the death of a detainee last month.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence is to strengthen its intelligence apparatus in a restructuring move that will give its leadership more "authoritative status" to tackle 'security threats' including "separatism".

The governor of the Northern province admitted that the Sri Lankan military was causing environmental damage by exploiting Mullaitivu ground water.

The remarks came at a meeting of the district development committee last week when Governor Suren Raghavan was told about the Sri Lankan army extracting millions of litres of water daily from a tube well in Karaithuraipatru (Maritimepattu).

Families of the disappeared this week continued their protests across the North-East, demanding justice for their disappeared loved ones.