The Association for the Families of the Disappeared issued a reminder to Sri Lankan President Anura Dissanayake, urging him to take concrete actions rather than making election-time promises this week.

In a media briefing held in Vavuniya, the group emphasized the urgency of releasing Tamil political prisoners and returning Tamil-owned lands, demands which say cannot wait for electoral cycles.

Plainclothes Sri Lankan police officers arrived at the family home of exiled Tamil journalist Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran and subjected his elderly father to intense interrogation, recording his statement for more than an hour, as the harassment of Tamil media workers continued.

This unsettling visit is connected to an ongoing court case involving allegations against journalists who were reporting on a protest led by farmers against former Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe last year.

Sri Lanka’s president Anura Kumara Dissanayake allegedly transported bus loads of Sinhalese supporters to Jaffna yesterday, as he spoke of “uniting all Sri Lankans under one flag” to crowds at a rally in the North-East.

^{A photograph of Sinhala supporters in a bus from outside of Jaffna, as Sri Lanka's president came to the Tamil North-East this weekend.}

A group of nine Eelam Tamil refugees who had previously sought refuge in India were detained by the Sri Lankan Navy near Neduntheevu Island this week.

The group, comprising three men, three women, and three children from Trincomalee, Mannar, and Mullaitivu, had initially arrived in India via the Dhanushkodi coast having fled during Sri Lanka’s economic crisis between 2022 and 2023. They had been living in Tamil Nadu’s Mandapam camp where thousands of Eelam Tamil refugees remain.

Lawrence Valin’s ‘Little Jaffna,’ a feature-length debut based on his short film, delivers a compelling story about identity. Set in France, the film follows Michael, a Tamil-French police officer, assigned to infiltrate a crime syndicate funding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). As Michael enters this world, his long-suppressed connection to it resurfaces, leading to internal conflict as he balances his mission and heritage.

As Tamils across the island gear up to vote in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections this week, candidates from across the array of Tamil parties have all tried to showcase their nationalist credentials to secure the Tamil vote.

The election, set to take place on November 14, has seen a surge in Tamil nominations as hundreds of individuals, some from newly formed Tamil political parties, are standing to become MPs.

There are almost 400 candidates standing for Jaffna’s 6 seats, whilst in the Vanni, there are 423 candidates for their 6 seats. Hundreds of Tamils are also standing in the Eastern Provinces three districts of Batticaloa, Amparai and Trincomalee.

Sri Lankan police officers in Jaffna assaulted several Tamil civilians in Chunnakam last night, including a woman and her 2-month-old baby, in an incident that has sparked outrage and demands for justice, amidst ongoing police brutality.

The United States Department of Justice has unsealed criminal charges against a man allegedly tasked by Iran with “surveilling and plotting to assassinate” Donald Trump before the presidential election, the indictment also reveals that the man had been tasked to plan a mass shooting to target Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. 

On Thursday, the Chunakkam police force carried out a brutal and unlawful arrest of two innocent individuals, leaving the affected families in fear. This follows multiple acts of police brutality in the region.

The victims were traveling with their family, including a two-month-old child, when two motorcycles overtook and collided in front of them. “We stopped our vehicle as there was no fault on our part,” one victim recounted. The motorcyclists involved were reportedly drunk, with bystanders confirming this.