^{Photograph: Army.lk}

Sri Lankan security force troops carried out ‘community projects’ in schools and hospitals in Mullaitivu over the past few weeks.

UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency, praised Sri Lanka for its “effective response to COVID-19” and being among the first South Asian countries to reopen schools, despite previously condemning Sri Lanka’s history of violence against children.

^{Photograph : Twitter - @PragasGnanam [1990 Sri Lanka army roundup at Batticaloa - Chittandi 30th anniversary remembrance]}

Sri Lankan army officers attacked a group of Tamils in Mannar, leaving one of them seriously injured and hospitalised. 

A tense situation prevailed in the Theravil area of Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu, after a Sri Lankan soldier harassed a 17-year-old Tamil girl and exposed his genitals at her.

The assault took place on Sunday as the girl walked past the army camp of the 7th battalion of the Gemenu Watch, close to her neighbourhood in Theravil.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) met with the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, in Colombo to discuss the concerns of the Tamil people following the recent parliamentary election. 

^{File Photograph : Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa}

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated that he will be removing the 19^th amendment, which currently limits presidential power, during his inaugural speech to the 9^th Parliament on Thursday.   

Kandhaiya Chandrasekaram, the elder brother of senior commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Brigadier Balraj, passed away in Mullaitivu on Tuesday. 

Kandhaiya was an activist against Sinhalese colonisation of historic Tamil lands such as Kokkilai, Kokku Thoduvai and Manalaru.

A 20-year-old Tamil journalist was attacked by two unidentified persons on Brown Road, Jaffna, last Friday.

Vijayanathan Janarthan, a media correspondent at Tamil newspaper, Valampuri was intercepted by two masked men on a motorbike and attacked using a barbed wire. Janarthan, who was on his way back to his hometown of Urelu from the Valampuri office after work, had his motorcycle smashed up by the assailants.

^{File photograph : Ananthy Sasitharan}

Former Northern Provincial Councillor, Ananthy Sasitharan, said “we will continue to pursue the path to seek international justice” and that the current cabinet is inherently racist and set up in a manner that leaves Tamils victim to structural genocide.

The 30^th anniversary since human rights activist Father Eugene John Hebert was forcibly disappeared in Batticaloa was commemorated, earlier this month.

Sri Lankan soldiers engaged in a sudden round-up of a town in Jaffna last Thursday night (August 20), according to Tamil press reports. 

A large number of troops reportedly appeared in the west of Kondavil, patrolling and carrying out checks on every street in the area.

Locals report that the reason for the sudden round-up was unknown, with no official announcement or statement yet issued by the Sri Lankan military either.

Addressing Sri Lankan President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s first parliamentary address since the parliamentary elections, the Hindu urged the government to “not undo democratic gains or roll back devolution in the Constitution”.