Updated 22:13 BST

Sri Lankan police officers forcibly disrupted a remembrance event today held outside the office of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) in Kaithady, Jaffna, kicking and stamping out a flame of remembrance lit to commemorate the thousands killed in Mullivaikkal 5 years ago, whilst shouting in Sinhala.

NPC Councillors, Ananthy Sasitharan and Mr. Shivajilingham  were holding the commemorative event just outside the office premises, as the gates were padlocked with security forces surrounding the area.

Mr. Shivajilingham was in the process of lighting the flame, when police officers rushed in, throwing the lamp to the ground. 

Video courtesy of Aayutha Elutthu

The Northern Province's Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran congratulated India's Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi on his "historic win", calling on him to ensure justice and a political solution for Tamils in Sri Lanka.

"The Tamil people of Sri Lanka hoped that his government would be actively engaged with the country, helping them achieve a lasting political solution," Chief Minister Wigneswaran, was quoted by The Hindu as saying.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is not planning to attend the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer, according to a report on the insidethegames website.

The website says a “potentially harmful diplomatic challenge” for the games will likely be avoided if Rajapaksa stays away, after letters expressing concern about the Sri Lankan president’s visit were sent to Foreign Secretary by the shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander and the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.

The article further said that Rajapaksa’s absence “would surely be a relief to [the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth], and would be one thing less to worry about ahead of the Games, set to begin on July 23”.

India’s Union Ministry this week extended the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been extended for another five years. 

“The Government of India, under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, has proscribed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as an ‘Unlawful Association’. The declaration of LTTE as an ‘Unlawful Association’ has been extended for a further period of five years with effect from May 14, 2014,” said a notification made public on Thursday.

The proscription of the LTTE was last extended in 2012.

The notification in 2012 said that the LTTE continued to be working towards “the Eelam cause” and that the government has information that “the activities of the LTTE remnant cadres, dropouts, sympathisers, supporters who have been traced out recently in the State of Tamil Nadu suggest that the cadres sent to Tamil Nadu would ultimately be utilised by the LTTE for unlawful activities”, The Hindu reported.

The Jaffna University Science Teachers’ Association has condemned the closure of the university over the period covering the anniversary of the end of the armed conflict, in a statement released on Wednesday.
The statement said that death threats were issued against several student leaders and professors, who were accused of “guiding students to support terrorism”.

“Why should Tamils speaking of the war be such an explosive issue five years after it ended, a war in which neither side owned a monopoly on terrorism? The answer has to do with the ideological polarization that remains because there is even less hope now of a political settlement to the national question that has been with us from Independence. Let us not forget that the Government is to observe the same anniversary in grand style in Matara, as the sole author of victory over the LTTE, and with all the pomp and circumstance that goes on around it,” the statement said.

Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa did not yield to international pressure to end the military campaign in 2009, said Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, according to PTI.

"Some countries sent advance teams and even were ready to send ships. But the President (Rajapaksa) refused to give in," he said at a gathering in the central district of Kandy yesterday.

Amnesty International's new campaign, 'Stop Torture', highlighted the extensive use of torture as a 'fact of life' across Asia, including in Sri Lanka.

Highlighting the use of torture in extracted confessions from detainees, the 'Stop Torture' report noted:

"Police forces in countries including China, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, at times torture individuals during interrogation and pre-trial detention, often forcing detainees to “confess” to a crime. Sometimes prisoners are even tortured to death.