Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa denied that any Tamil journalists were killed during his tenure and lashed out at critics in an interview this week.

Speaking with Johan Mikaelsson, Rajapaksa claimed he was “100% sure” that no Tamil journalists were killed or disappeared and lamented that “there is no end to complaints”.

A Muslim-owned textile boutique in Trincomalee was the centre of tensions on Saturday for selling fabrics bearing prints of the Buddha’s face.

Tensions rose to a head after the head monk of a nearby Buddhist vihara turned up at the popular boutique in Trinco town on hearing word of the fabrics being sold.

The monk and his entourage attempted to seize the fabrics as the business owner resisted. However Trincomalee police arrived at the scene a short while later and seized the fabrics.

The former TNA MP S Viyalendiran who defected to the Rajapaksa-Sirisena government was condemned by protestors in Batticaloa on Sunday.

At a UNP-organised protest against the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister, protestors accused Viyalendiran of selling out his Tamil constituents.

“Don’t bring us slave status for your minister status,” one placard read.

Viyalendiran, a former PLOTE member, defected from the TNA to Rajapaksa's governmet, being appointed as a deputy minister of regional development in the East.

The Buddhist monk who leads the Sinhala Buddhist group ‘Sinhala Ravaya’ has requested presidential pardons for fellow monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, the founder of the Sinhala Buddhist hate group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) who is currently serving jail time for contempt of court, and Duminda Silva, the SLFP politician with strong links to the drug trade and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, currently on death row accused of the murder of a fellow politician.

The Sri Lankan President has been roundly criticised following homophobic remarks he made at a rally of over a hundred thousand supporters in Colombo. Sri Lanka’s LGBTQI+ community expressed their disappointment in Sirisena, claiming many among them had voted for him hoping for relief from the ‘rampant homophobia’ which marked the Rajapaksa presidency.

At the rally with his now de facto prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, President Sirisena accused his former coalition partner and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had rejected ‘national values’ for a ‘butterfly’ lifestyle, implying a queer lifestyle.

As well as drawing criticism from high profile Sri Lankan commentators on social media, his remarks were condemned by Sri Lanka’s LGBTQI+ community and allies in a statement: