Sri Lankan Prime Minster, Ranil Wickremesinghe, says Jaffna will return to normalcy and become an economic hub within five years.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of Jaffna International Airport yesterday, the Prime Minster said opening the airport was just the first step and several other steps are to follow. Once the runway is extended, “flights from the Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand will be available to Jaffna.”

President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared Jaffna International Airport open yesterday.

The Pirampadi massacre in Kokkuvil, when over fifty Tamil civilians were shot dead or crushed with an armoured vehicle by Indian Peacekeeping Forces (IPKF) was remembered in the village on Saturday, 32 years after the massacre.

Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, former Sri Lankan Defence Attaché to the United Kingdom, will face a new trial tomorrow at the Westminster Magistrates Court for motioning a death threat to Tamils in London, protesting Sri Lanka's celebration of Independence Day last year. 

The head of Sri Lanka’s army and accused war criminal Shavendra Silva, landed himself in trouble with the country’s election commission this week, after he endorsed former defence secretary and fellow accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa ahead of the island’s presidential elections.

Former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga praised the history of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in a statement this week, where she urged party members to “think wisely” before voting in the upcoming election.

Kumaratunga, who is accused of overseeing the bombing of schools and churches during her tenure as president, slammed the current Sri Lankan president for allowing the party to back Gotabaya Rajapaksa in next month’s presidential election.

Sinhalese majoritarianism remains a problem in Sri Lanka, said anthropologist Syed Mohammad Ali, calling on it to be “rolled back” to achieve reconciliation on the island.

Writing in The Express Tribune, an English-language daily based in Pakistan, he compared the history of the island to that of Rwanda, stating that...

A test flight to Jaffna from Chennai landed at Palaly airport yesterday, marking the first successful commercial flight from India to the Jaffna peninsula in decades.

The Alliance Air flight made its arrival, ahead of Palaly airport’s official commercial opening on Thursday.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary laughed off blame for the disappearance and execution of surrendering Tamils during the final phase of the armed conflict a decade ago, claiming he had no responsibility over what happened.