Sri Lankan police have threatened traders in a Vavuniya village against carrying out work for an ancient Tamil temple, after enforcing a ban by the archaeology department on work being done to the temple.

Administration of the ancient Athi Aiyyanar temple on Vedukkunari malai (mountain) in Olumadu-Nedunkeni have said the ladder leading to the temple, the only safe way to access the rocky hollow where the shrine is located, has disintegrated and needs repair or replacement.

The Sri Lankan army is cutting off a vital water supply to Tamil-owned cultivation land in Poonakary, Kilinochchi, locals have said.

Residents of Arasapuram in Poonakary said the tank which they use to provide water for their crops is being closed up by the army as it fortifies the boundary fences of a camp adjacent to the tank.

Troops have been filling the tank with saline soil, both restricting the water supply and making it potentially harmful for crops, local farmers said.

The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) said it would seek legal assistance at the Court of Appeal against the Tamil UNP MP Vijayakala Maheswaran, saying that the police have mishandled her case in allowing her bail.

Maheswaran was arrested last week over a speech she gave earlier this year in which she said rising crime rates in the North-East made Tamils long for the return of the LTTE. The MP was released on bail the same day.

Listing the legal provisions that Maheswaran’s speech purportedly violated, the PHU ‘propaganda secretary’ said:

The Sri Lankan navy evicted Mullikulam residents from their temporary huts on Sunday causing tensions between the villagers and the forces.

A Tamil man from Kilinochchi has been arrested for drug trafficking according to Vavuniya police.

The police said they arrested the man on a Jaffna-Kandy bus which they had stopped and searched in Nochimoddai in Vavuniya around 5.30am on Sunday.

He was in possession of 9.314kg cannabis (Kerala ganja) the police said.

At least 41 were people have been arrested by the Sri Lankan police in Jaffna on Sunday, after a series of search operations conducted in the region.

Searches were carried out in Jaffna town, Mannipay, Chunnakam and Koppay.

Sri Lanka’s notorious Police Special Task Force (STF), which has been accused of committing human rights abuses, has taken over security across the island’s prisons as of today.

The Senior Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Prison Reforms, Bandula Jayasinghe said that initially 300 STF personnel would be deployed across Welikada and Magazine prisons, and the Angunakolapelessa prison before expanding to others.

He claimed that the move would result in less “illegal activities in prisons”.

Sri Lanka’s former cricket captain and former deputy minister Sanath Jayasuriya has been charged by the International Cricket Council (ICC) with two counts of breaching the Anti-Corruption Code.

Jayasuriya is accused of failing to co-operate with the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit investigation on the island and of obstructing the investigation by "concealing, tampering with or destroying evidence".

Britain’s Home Office have ordered at least four medics to accompany a Tamil man who is due to be deported to Australia later today, despite the fact that other doctors have ruled the man “unfit to fly”.

Sangarapillai Balachandran, a 60-year-old who holds Australian citizenship, is due to be deported from the UK later today, despite fears over his health and fitness to fly. Balachandran has had three increasingly serious strokes and is known to have raised blood pressure. Long flights increase the risk of serious events such as strokes, and his family fear he could die on the flight.

The home of a priest in Chavakachcheri was robbed by an armed gang this weekend, as crime across Jaffna continues despite the heavy military presence in the peninsula.

At least 8 masked men armed with swords broke into the home in the early hours of Saturday morning. The residents of the house were all threatened and locked in a room, whilst the gang burgled the property, stealing gold jewellery belonging to the family.

The Sri Lankan police say they are investigating the incident.

Despite the heavy military presence and the recent ramp up in security forces due to crime, attacks on homes and properties have continued across Jaffna.