Lands that were being occupied by the Sri Lankan military were released to their original owners for the first time in years, with Tamils returning to the area finding their homes having been left in ruins.

Some of the families were visiting their homes for the first time in almost 30 years. Much of the land had been seized by the Sri Lankan military after it launched an offensive to capture the Jaffna peninsula in 1995, triggering an exodus of over half a million people.

Sri Lanka's archaeology department has claimed that the eight Tamil devotees at Vedukkunaari Hill Athi Sivan temple were arrested during the Shivarathri for damaging the temple's antiquities. 

Hundreds of women from all eight districts across the Tamil homeland 8 districts took to the streets in Kilinochchi today, demanding an end all forms of oppression, harassment, and militarisation across the North-East, including eliminating violence against women.

The leader of the Crusaders for Democratic Party, C. Vendan, called on India to expedite the release of the remaining freed convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who are presently detained in special camps.

Tamil families of the disappeared in Vavuniya are marking 2578 days of continuous roadside protest today. in pursuit of answers to the whereabouts of their forcibly disappeared loved ones.

Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran was the sole opposition lawmaker to attend a meeting convened by Sri Lanka’s president regarding engagment with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday, as he broke a boycott against the global body’s “hard reforms”.

The residents of Pallimunai in Mannar and Pungudutivu in Jaffna took to the streets last week to protests over the Sri Lankan government’s failure to address their grievances on a range of issues, from Sinhala settlers disrupting their livelihood through sea cucumber farms to illegal sand mining.

Out of the thousands of acres of land forcibly retained by the Sri Lankan military in the North-East, 70 acres in Valikamam North and 40 acres in Kilinochchi were ceremoniously released this weekend, even as the state continues to engage in further land grabbing attempts.

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Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) MP Sivagnanam Shritharan has called on Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe to release the eight individuals who were arrested by Sri Lankan police during the observance of Shivarathri at the Vedukkunaari Hill Athi Sivan temple on Friday. 

Despite repeated pleas from civil society organizations, environmentalists, and locals over the construction of a wind power plant in Eastern Mannar, the government of Sri Lanka announced that it would forge ahead regardless and call for tenders this week owing to ‘growing interests from investors.’

A protest was held in Jaffna this morning to condemn the violence and arrests by Sri Lankan police that disrupted Shivarathri celebrations at the Vedukkunaari Athi Sivan temple on Friday.

Mannar Magistrate Court has summoned the Chief Judicial Medical Officer and other experts to attend the next hearing on the Sathosa mass grave for failing to provide a comprehensive report on the excavations.