Sri Lankan aviation authorities have stated that they are leading reach into the mythological character King Ravana’s “aviation routes”.

Former Chief Minister and leader of the Thamizh Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) C V Wigneswaran has said that a senior Jaffna University was barred from his private legal practice to protect the interests of the Sri Lankan army.

Three members of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in the North-East have been questioned and intimidated by the Sri Lankan military, the party said.

The SEP, who are running for seats in Jaffna, Colombo and Nuwara Eliya, have reported that military intelligence personnel have violated the democratic rights of the party by visiting the houses of key SEP candidates to extract information.

“The army is going door-to-door collecting young people’s personal information supposedly for government jobs’’ claimed Vijayakala Maheswaran, a former foreign minister and United National Party (UNP) candidate, during an election campaign meeting in Inuvil last week.

‘‘The army is not required to collect this information in order to provide government employment. This practice must be stopped immediately. Such events did not take place during the United National Party’s governance’’ she added.

The new moon in Aadi (July) is one of the three most powerful new moons of the year. Devotees honour their ancestors by observing fasts, feeding crows and bathing in large bodies of natural water to rid themselves of their sins.

Hundreds of migrant workers from Sri Lanka are stranded in the Middle East, with at least 44 dead from the coronavirus, as they struggle to find a way to be repatriated back to the island.

The crisis of migrant workers is ongoing, as thousands have lost their jobs during the pandemic and have no feasible way of returning to the island. Those who want to return must also face the barrier of paying for a mandatory PCR test, which many do not have the funds to afford, especially as they scramble to pay for basic needs like food.

Amnesty International said it was “extremely concerned” that evidence against a Muslim human rights lawyer who was detained by Sri Lanka’s security forces under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) “may now be subject to fabrication”. 

The Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), a newly formed party led by Sri Lanka’s Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, has vowed that there will be “no room for separatism” in its manifesto ahead of elections next month.

“As a victim of terrorism myself, I assure each and every citizen of this country that there will be a zero-tolerance approach to terrorism and extremism,” declared Premadasa in the manifesto. “I will appoint the best people to handle national security.”

Human rights lawyers, activists and journalists have “faced arrests, threats and harassment” in Sri Lanka as general elections draw closer reports international non-governmental organisation, CIVICUS.

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa called for a “revolution in the construction sector” last week, as he announced he would place his trust on the local engineers in the same manner as when the state “placed faith on the youth in the battle against terrorism”.

Speaking with members of the Institution of Engineers on Thursday, Rajapaksa announced that the “culture of assigning development projects to foreign companies will be reverted and future development programme will be entrusted upon the local engineers”.