A Sinhala Buddhist monk has launched a hunger strike in Tangalle demanding the restoration of state security for former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, following the government’s recent decision to scale back protection for former heads of state.

The former president and secretary of the Vedukkunaari Malai Aathi Shivan Temple in Vavuniya have been summoned for questioning by Sri Lanka’s Counter-Terrorism Investigation Division (CTID), raising renewed concerns over state intimidation of Tamil religious leaders.

A memorial known as the “Unquenchable Lamp,” erected in Jaffna to demand justice for the Chemmani mass graves, was found vandalised early on Thursday, just weeks after it was first set up by protesters.

Booker Prize–winning author Arundhati Roy has drawn parallels between the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities against Tamils, warning that world leaders are “watching what Netanyahu can get away with” and setting a new “bar” for state violence.

In September 2025, the Sri Lankan military intensified its presence in the Tamil homeland. The Sri Lankan armed forces continued to embed themselves in schools, children's homes, churches, and community events across the North-East.  Packaged as "civil-military relations" and "trust-building," these initiatives work to normalise a permanent military presence and keep the state involved in Tamil spaces.

A memorial discussion titled “Mirage of Justice” was held in Jaffna on Monday in remembrance of Dr Kasipillai Manoharan, who courageously fought for justice for the five Tamil students shot and killed by the Sri Lankan military in Trincomalee in 2006, as well as in memory of the murdered youths themselves.

Tensions flared in Mannar this week as residents of Pesalai drove away a team conducting a sand survey for a proposed wind power project along the village’s southern coast.

Sri Lanka owes USD 37 billion in foreign loans and Rs. 19.6 trillion in domestic loans, officials from the State Debt Management Office told the Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) this week, laying bare the scale of the island’s economic crisis.

The US Embassy in Colombo has publicly congratulated two Sri Lankan navy officers for completing training programmes in the United States, marking another show of deepening military cooperation between Washington and Colombo, even as concerns persist over Sri Lanka’s record of war crimes, torture, and impunity.

Former Sri Lankan army commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka launched an explosive tirade against former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, accusing him of large-scale corruption, abuse of state property and betrayal of the country, declaring Rajapaksa “deserves death by hanging.”