Basil Rajapaksa, the newly appointed Sri Lankan Minister of Finance and the fourth Rajapaksa brother to enter the Cabinet instructed state officials to refrain from committing corruption and burdening the public despite difficulties amidst the pandemic.

During a meeting with Governors, Provincial Chief and District Secretaries and others, Rajapaksa asked officials to make significant changes to reduce fraud and corruption in all sectors.

The United Kingdom has admitted to failing to carry out an assessment of Sri Lanka’s compliance of human rights in its trade agreements. 

_{Protesters in Mannar}

Tamil protesters across the North-East staged demonstrations demanding justice and the arrest of the perpetrators for sexually abusing a 16-year-old domestic worker that had committed suicide by setting herself on fire.

The 53 Tamil political prisoners massacred in Welikada prison 38 years ago were remembered in Trincomalee yesterday despite a police ban. 

Attendees, including MP for Batticaloa Govindan Karunakaran, defiantly laid flowers for the victims of the massacre, as a Sri Lankan police officer attempted to obstruct the service. 

Sarah Hulton, British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka reaffirms the United Kingdom's “commitment to Sri Lanka” as consultations begin on a new trade scheme, despite international concern over the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

One of the key eyewitnesses of the notorious 2012 Welikada prison massacre, Sudesh Nandimal De Silva, received death threats by two unidentified people.  

According to Attorney-at-Law and the chairman of the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP), Senaka Perera, the two unidentified people had inquired from neighbours about De Silva’s movements and made statements which implied death threats to De Silva on 7 July 2021.

A remembrance event was held for Selvarajah Yogachandran, referred to as Kuttimani, and Nadarajah Thangavelu, alias Thangathurai, the co-founding leaders of TLO (Tamil Liberation Organisation), at the Tamil National Party office in Jaffna on Sunday.

The two were brutally murdered during the infamous Wellikada prison massacre which occurred during ‘Black July’, which saw thousands of Tamils killed by Sinhala mobs backed by the Sri Lankan government forces. 

Former Northern Provincial Council member Thurairasa Ravikaran called for Sri Lankan state forces to take accountability and impose sanctions on the illegal encroachment of fishermen from Southern Sri Lankan into the seas in Mullaitivu. 

The Sri Lankan navy has stepped up land grab operations in Mullaitivu, redoubling efforts to seize 617 acres of private land which was gazetted in 2017 for appropriation for the construction of 'Vattuvakal Gotabaya Navy base'.

In 2018, the navy abandoned land surveying attempts in response to successful protests organised by the Tamil landowners. Then Northern Province Council members M. K. Sivajilingam and T. Ravikaran were arrested by Mullaitivu police for their involvement.

Sri Lanka's Forest Department is alleged to have facilitated the illegal trade of timber across the North-East, particularly forested areas in Mullaitivu which have been targeted by illegal loggers leading to high rates of deforestation within the area. 

Teak trees cut in the Murrippu, in the Mullaitivu district, are reportedly transported to the Nahacholai forest area and sold by smugglers.