The Indian military has joined with the Sri Lankan armed forces to begin a joint military exercise entitled 'Mithra Shakthi' on Monday.

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister has called for the government not to be judged by the statements of senior officials, after Sri Lanka’s president slammed an ongoing corruption commission for investigating members of the military.

"Please judge us by our actions, not by our statements,” said Mangala Samaraweera at a press conference in Colombo, in response to a question regarding his government's committment to accountability and transparency.

He went on to dismiss President Maithripala Sirisena’s comments, stating,

The National Organiser of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) has called for a “total crackdown” on all former LTTE cadres in the North-East, reports the Daily Mirror, after protests and unrest in the region, after two university students were shot dead by Sri Lankan police.

Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe told a press conference that "the Government should carry out a thorough check on all former LTTEers to determine their current circumstances and activities and arrest if found to be connected to any criminal activities."

A hartal has taken place this morning in Jaffna, with shops and businesses across the town shut in protest against the killing of two Tamil university students by Sri Lankan police.

The hartal, which is backed by political parties including the TNA, was announced after the murder of Sulaxan and Kajan. The funeral of the two students took place this weekend, with demonstrations across the North-East.

Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met with Sri Lanka’s president on Monday, after arriving on Saturday for a three-day visit with a business delegation.

Foreign Secretary Jaishankar held discussions with President Sirisena on the implementation of various initiatives and economic cooperation projects reports Colombo Page.

The visit was aimed at exploring the potential to promote the Indian business in Sri Lanka and investment opportunities.

Demonstrations against the police shootings of two Jaffna University Students took place in Colombo.

Expressing solidarity with those protesting across the North-east, demonstrators in Colombo asked if police bullets where only reserved for Tamils.

Students across the Tamil homeland held demonstrations on Monday, protesting against the deaths of Jaffna University students Nadarasa Kajan and Pavunraj Sulaxan and calling for justice.

The funeral of murdered Jaffna University student Nadarasa Kajan was held in Kilinochchi on Sunday.

The Tamil Students Initiative in the United Kingdom has called for an “impartial inquiry” into the murder of two students from Jaffna University last and echoed the call for justice and accountability for the killings.

In a statement released on Sunday, the British student organisation said the incident was “yet another reminder of the chilling effects of intense militarisation in the North-East”.

“Their deaths are yet another tragedy that will reverberate with the Tamil community - especially students - across the globe,” the statement continued. “We cannot lose more young lives to state violence.”