Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met with Sri Lanka’s president on Monday, after arriving on Saturday for a three-day visit with a business delegation. Foreign Secretary Jaishankar held discussions with President Sirisena on the implementation of various initiatives and economic cooperation projects reports Colombo Page. The visit was aimed at exploring the potential to promote the Indian business in Sri Lanka and investment opportunities. A business sector meeting is expected to be held with leaders of Sri Lanka industry, with discussions on partnerships in the power sector, development...
Demonstrations against the police shootings of two Jaffna University Students took place in Colombo. Expressing solidarity with those protesting across the North-east, demonstrators in Colombo asked if police bullets where only reserved for Tamils. Photograph: @SRajasekar The demonstrators gathered in front of Colombo Fort Railway Station.
Students across the Tamil homeland held demonstrations on Monday, protesting against the deaths of Jaffna University students Nadarasa Kajan and Pavunraj Sulaxan and calling for justice. In Kilinochchi hundreds of students, including Tamil schoolchildren in uniform, marched on the streets waving black flags and demanding accountability for the murder of the two university students. TNA MP Sritharan was amongst the politicians who addressed the rally as it marched outside the Kilinochchi District Secretariat. Students at the Vavuniya campus of Jaffna University also held a protest outside the...
The funeral of murdered Jaffna University student Nadarasa Kajan was held in Kilinochchi on Sunday. Thousands of mourners joined the funeral procession, some carrying placards to protest against the killings and demanding justice.
The Tamil Students Initiative in the United Kingdom has called for an “impartial inquiry” into the murder of two students from Jaffna University last and echoed the call for justice and accountability for the killings. In a statement released on Sunday, the British student organisation said the incident was “yet another reminder of the chilling effects of intense militarisation in the North-East”. “Their deaths are yet another tragedy that will reverberate with the Tamil community - especially students - across the globe,” the statement continued. “We cannot lose more young lives to state...
Two Sri Lankan police officers were injured in a sword attack in Chunnakam on Sunday. The attack was reportedly gang-related and caused a high security presence, including special forces, around several areas of Jaffna. The injured officers, identified as Nimal Bandara and P. S. Navaratna, were attacked while responding to reports of violent and disorderly youths attacking businesses in Chunnakam town. With Chunnakam already grieving the murder of a local Tamil university student, many residents said the violence and disturbances were intended to deliberately terrorise the area.
An event was held in Denmark earlier this month to remember the sacrifice of Lt. Maalathy , Lt. Col. Kumarappa, Lt. Col. Pulendran and other LTTE cadres who lost their lives during the Tamil struggle. Hundreds of people attended the event, with songs and dances performed in tribute to the fallen fighters. The crowd also lined up to place candles and flowers before the photographs of the fallen cadres. Amongst those remembered was Lt. Maalathy was the first female fighter in the armed struggle against the Sri Lankan state oppression to lose her life. Malathy was killed at the age of 20, on the...
Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena insisted that the position of Buddhism on the island would not be changed in any new constitution that is to be implemented. The Hindu reported Mr Sirisena as telling a Buddhist gathering in Trincomalee on Friday that “Buddhism’s position, coming since 1972, will not be changed”. Negotiations around a proposed new constitution have been kept secret by both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil National Alliance, with TNA parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran telling a gathering in Jaffna this month that there were "reasons for the silence we keep". Mr...
The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) on Saturday welcomed the statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on minority rights, issued this week following her visit to the island. "Ms Izsak-Ndiaye’s recommendation that the most pressing and emotive issues for minority communities – disappeared persons, return of occupied land, release of security-related detainees, as well as demilitarisation - must be addressed urgently, and her call that the views and aspirations of the minority communities must be taken into proper consideration in the constitutional reform process, resonate fully well with the Tamil...