Residents of Chavakachcheri confronted Sri Lankan soldiers attempting to dig up grass and soil for their camp from the banks of a lagoon, in an area designated as a public leisure space.

The incident took place yesterday in Kovitkudiyiruppu, with angered locals demanding soldiers stop digging up the grasses and soil in an area designated as a public leisure and tourism spot by the Chavakachcheri Urban Council.

The village officer (Grama sevakar) was called to the incident and requested the soldiers to not dig the soil as this would disrupt the tree roots growing around.

The soldiers are reported to have left the scene after the village officer’s request.

Sri Lanka’s United National Party has instructed the armed forces to take immediate action when information about LTTE commemorations is received, according to UNP Minister Navin Dissanayake. The Minister also claimed that the commemorations were being held as an organised campaign to attract Tamil diaspora money.

The New Star Sports Club (NSSC Montreal) hosted their 4th Annual Mega Blast and Sports Festival on Saturday July 7th, 2018 at Parc Saint Maxime in Laval, Canada.

In collaboration with Tamil One TV, the Trinco Association of Montreal and NSSC Montreal held a day full of various activities for all ages, including a volleyball tournament, inflatable game and tug of war competition amidst many more.

A Tamil asylum-seeker in Australia faces permanent separation from his wife and baby daughter after receiving a deportation notice on Friday, the Tamil Refugee Council said, adding that he could be deported as soon as Monday.

30-year-old Thileepan had fled Sri Lanka after being tortured and interrogated by Sri Lankan security forces, arriving in Australia in June 2012.

There were scenes of further demonstrations today outside the Office on Missing Persons hearing as families of the disappeared demanded an international investigation into the whereabouts of their missing loved ones. 

The OMP hearing which took place in the Kilinochchi this morning, follows a sitting in Jaffna yesterday where families of the disappeared protested outside, rejecting the process. 

An assistant to one of the petitioners in a Habeas Corpus (disappearances) court case was brutally attacked with an iron rod in Vaddukoddai, Jaffna yesterday. 

The 36 year old victim had been riding her push bike with her young son, when an unidentified man in his mid-30s came up from behind and hit her on the shoulders with an iron rod, before pushing her son out of the way and hitting her directly on the head. 

She remains in hospital with a major concussion and laceration, and was unconscious for almost two hours.

The chief minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran told officials in the Northern Province not to provide information to the Sri Lankan army without seeking his approval.

His comments come amid reports that the Terrorism Investigation Department had asked health officials within the NPC for information regarding babies born in Kilinochchi during a week in May. 

“If the army requested for any information, you tell them that I had requested you not to give them any information without my approval,” he said during an event in Kilinochchi yesterday. 
 

Sri Lanka's army commander, Mahesh Senanayake reiterated that the army would not close down any camps in the North, in an attempt to reassure the Sinhala population of 'national security'. 

"The Army urges the public not to be misled by those unfounded and false media reports, but continue to repose the full confidence in the Army, considering its past services as well as the roles and tasks, now being performed across the country,” he said in the media statement. 

The Terrorism Investigation Department is collecting information about babies born in Kilinochchi from May 25 - 30 in order to arrest a man over the alleged discovery of a LTTE flag and ammunition in Oddisudan last month, Sri Lankan police sources told local reporters. 

The discovery was reportedly made when police stopped an auto taxi. One person was arrested at the scene whilst another escaped. 

TID officers believe the man they are searching for is from Kilinochchi and his wife gave birth to a baby between May 25 - 30. 

The Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission has written to the President of Sri Lanka, urging him to reconsider the plans to bring in the death penalty for drug trafficking convicts.

The Commission’s chairperson Deepika Udagama said that the death penalty os a serious human rights violation and that implementing it would not address the issue of drug trafficking.

The letter also stated that implementing the death penalty would worsen the already diminished reputation of the country’s justice system.