A Tamil newspaper distributor was arrested by the Sri Lankan army in Mullaitivu for possessing newspapers with photos of the LTTE leader Veluppillai Prabhakaran on the cover.

The distributor of a Tamil weekly was arrested and handed over to Oddusuddan police after being stopped and searched on the Oddusuddan-Nedunkeni road by the army.

The newspaper he was distributing featured an article about southern politicians’ remarks about the LTTE leader and a photo of the leader as its cover photo.

The distributor was released after questioning.

The Vavuniya High Court has placed an injunction on works being carried out to a Hindu temple in Mullaitivu, following a Sinhala Buddhist monk’s appeal against a magistrate’s court ruling in favour of the temple.

After ongoing disputes between the historic temple at Neeraviyadi, Semmalai, and a Buddhist monk who had appropriated some of its land and built a large Buddha statue adjacent, the Mullaitivu magistrate’s court had ruled in favour of the temple’s precedence and said that both shrines should carry out their activities without disturbing the other.

The Sri Lankan military consolidated its presence in Jaffna this week, announcing the completed construction of yet another building at the army headquarters.

The Church of St Peter at Navaly commemorated over 140 Tamil civilians killed in its premises by Sri Lankan Air Force bombs 24 years ago during the presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga.

On July 9 1995, the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed the St Peter’s Church in Navaly and the nearby Sri Kathirgama Murugan Kovil, which were both sheltering displaced Tamils from army bombardment.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) concluded that there is “no justification” for the arrest of a Muslim doctor accused of sterilising Sinhala women, yet the man continues to be held in custody.

Court documents seen by AFP show that Sri Lanka’s CID found no evidence to support any of the allegations against Mohamed Shafi and instead said that Deputy Inspector General of Police Kithsiri Jayalath, chief in Shafi's home region of Kurunegala, fabricated evidence and fed it to Sinhalese newspapers.

"There is no justification for the arrest of Dr. Shafi," the CID concluded.

The acquittal of Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) troops over the murder of five Tamil students in 2006 demonstrates the need for “a court with international participation” said Human Rights Watch in a joint statement with Amnesty International on Monday.

Both Sri Lanka and Myanmar are “on the forefront of a radical religious-nationalist movement,” said Hannah Beech, the Southeast Asia Bureau Chief for The New York Times this week, in a piece that looked at the growing “militant Buddhism” in both regions. 

In Sri Lanka “over the past few years, Buddhist mobs have waged deadly attacks against minority Muslim populations,” said the piece. “Buddhist nationalist ideologues are using the spiritual authority of extremist monks to bolster their support.”

A Sri Lankan navy officer accused of aiding a key suspect involved in the abduction and murder of 11 Tamil youths was the guest of honour at the passing out ceremony of hundreds of Sri Lankan Special Forces troops last month.

Admiral Ravindra C. Wijegunaratne, Sri Lanka’s Chief of Defence Staff, was given a special guard of honour at the ceremony and awarded Special Forces badges and Colours to troops, before addressing the crowd.