The Tamil National Alliance on Thursday rejected reports it would join the unity government, after Sri Lanka's coalition government plunged into crisis following its poor performance at the local elections this weekend. 

"We will not join with the government until a solution to the national question is imminent, the TNA spokesperson, M A Sumanthiran was quoted by Athavan News as saying. The weblink to the article was subsequently tweeted by the TNA's official Twitter account. 

Three Hindu shrines across Mannar were vandalised last night, just one day before Hindus celebrate Maha Sivaraththri. 

The Vigneswaran temple in Thalaimannar, built in 1988 by the Indian Peace Keeping Forces, was broken into. Three statues have been stolen. 

Sri Lanka’s military in Mullaitivu declared open a new entrance to its 59 Division Headquarters earlier this month.

Sri Lankan troops across the North-East continued to impose themselves on civilian life in the region, with several divisions involving themselves in Thai Pongal festivities last month.

The Tamil Refugee Council has spoken out against the Australian government’s decision to deport a former LTTE cadre to Sri Lanka, stating that it “puts at risk his safety and possibly his life”.

The move to deport the Tamil asylum seeker named as Shantaruban comes despite the UN committee against torture issuing an interim measure request last year, formally asking that Australia “refrain from returning [Shantaruban] to the Republic of Sri Lanka while his complaint is under consideration”.

Reconciliation and lasting peace will elude Sri Lanka for as long as there is no accountability for massacres and atrocities, the advocacy group PEARL has said.

In a statement marking 22 years since the Kumarapuram massacre, the organisation said “justice for this case, amongst many, remains crucial for healing processes to commence.”

Reiterating the barriers to justice within the Sri Lankan judicial system, as found in the organisation’s 2017 report on the massacre, PEARL said:

A United National Party election pledge to build a thousand Buddhist shrines in the North-East will create conflict and resentment, a Northern Provincial Council member has said.

Filing a complaint with the elections commission, NPC member M. K. Sivajilingam said that the pledge to spend 500 million rupees building a thousand Buddhist viharas in the Tamil homeland was a pledge to use state money to sow conflict and resentment.

Trincomalee residents remembered the Kumarapuram massacre, in which Sri Lankan army corporals went on a murderous rampage through the village 22 years ago, raping and killing 24 Tamils.

Sri Lanka’s rupee hit a record low on Monday after local government election results from the weekend filtered through, showing former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s party achieving a significant victory.

The rupee traded at a record low of 155.00 on Monday, ending at 154.95/155.05 per dollar on Monday. Reuters reported that it also surpassed its previous all-time closing low of 154.60/70 hit on Tuesday.

Reuters also quoted a currency dealer as stating, “there were selling on (treasury) bonds by foreigners due to the political uncertainty and also the EU listing of Sri Lanka on a money laundering blacklist”.

Buoyed by his party’s victory at the local government elections this week, former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa has called for fresh parliamentary elections stating that people had “voted against the division of the country”.

“These results show people want a change now,” said Mr Rajapaksa, after his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) won control of 231 local councils out of a total of 340.

"People have given a clear message: This government has no mandate ... and no moral right to continue."

Mr Rajapaksa went on to state that the polls this weekend were a referendum on the current government’s reform agenda and plans for a new constitution.