Tamil Nadu fishermen from the village of Rameswaram have launched landmark mass protest against the continued detention of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy and have declared their intention to boycott the religious St Anthony’s festival.

A damning report released by the UN refugee agency has called for an “immediate relocation” of the 61 asylum seekers who have been stranded on the remote island for more than two years and have experienced violence, abuse and arbitrary detention.

Protests have been held in Thailaimannar in front of the Mannar Magistrate Court by residents calling for justice to be swiftly delivered in the case of 10-year-old Yasi Warnakulasuriya who was raped and murdered, 300 meters away from her home in Urmanani. 

Residents in Puthukudiyiruppu (PTK) protested over the alleged diversion of  Rs.1.7 million allocated for the development of Sunnampusulai Road which requires urgent repairs. 

File photograph - Tamil families of the disappeared in Vavuniya call on the EU to engage with the Tamil community

Sri Lanka will continue to benefit from the GSP+ Scheme until December 2027 although it continues to use the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). 

Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe has committed to protecting and securing the 'Buddhist order' by declaring 11 Buddhist temples as 'sacred sites', of which four are in Tamil speaking areas. 

In his first visit to the North-East after assuming duties the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santhosh Jha was quick to pursue India’s business interests in the region, specifically focusing on increasing connectivity between the two regions. 

A group of Tamil activists set off on their bicycles from London on Thursday 15 February and are cycling to Geneva, Switzerland where the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) are set to meet later this month. 

The current frontrunner in Sri Lanka’s presidential polls Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, was invited to visit Delhi earlier this month, where he engaged in a series of high-level talks. The move was seen as recognition from the Indian government that Dissanayake is a serious contender in elections which are set to take place later this year. It also seemed to mark a significant shift in the militantly Marxist JVP, a movement that was once violently anti-Indian but now seemingly open to engagement with Delhi. As Dissanayake’s visit demonstrates, however, the veneer of anti-imperialist politics within the Sinhala left has always been thin. It is not necessarily Indian interests they oppose, simply Tamil ones. 

The Sri Lankan government announced it was increasing air connectivity with Israel last week, as ties between the two countries continued to grow in recent months.

Addressing a Jaffna District Coordination Meeting recently, leader of the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam questioned why the Sri Lankan navy had allowed Indian trawlers laden with narcotics to enter the island's territorial waters. 

Sinhala extremist lawmaker Udaya Gammanpila submitted a Private Members Bill to the Sri Lankan Parliament, which seeks to remove police powers that should be granted to provinces under the 13th Amendment to the constitution, warning that “foreign nations” may end up funding “Tamil separatists” if it was enacted.