Shops across Tamil Nadu have closed in protest after the deaths of a father and son in Tamil Nadu police custody earlier this week, with widespread outrage across the state.

Jayaraj, aged 58, and his 31-year-old son Fenix had been questioned by Sathankulam police for violating lockdown rules and keeping their mobile phone shop open for half an hour past lockdown in Thoothukudi.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called for the Sri Lankan government-backed paramilitary leader Karuna to be investigated for crimes under international law, announcing that “accountability should apply to everyone in Sri Lanka".

"We note that Karuna former LTTE commander and Government minister, is being questioned for alleged past crimes,” said the office in a tweet yesterday. “He should also be investigated for wholesale recruitment of child soldiers, a crime under international law. Accountability should apply to everyone in Sri Lanka."

^{Karannagoda sits in between Mahinda and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa}

Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal issued an interim injunction Thursday, preventing the Colombo High Court from hearing a case against Former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda and thirteen others accused of the disappearance and abduction of 11 youth.

Shanthi Sriskantharajah, a parliamentary candidate from Vanni, has written to the election commission in which she called for the reduction of the Sri Lankan military presence in Mullaitivu, to create conditions conducive for conducting peaceful and democratic elections this year.

Photograph by @streetsoftamileelam

After Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa established an all Sinhala task force, which includes Buddhist monks and alleged war criminal to “preserve the historical heritage of Sri Lanka” in the Eastern province, we take a closer look at Sinhalisation efforts that have already taken place in the region.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and three other international human rights groups condemned the Sri Lankan police authorities’ assault on journalist Dharisha Bastians and stated they should immediately stop the “targeting, intimidating and harassing” and ensure Bastians’ safety.

Witnesses have told a court inquiry of how prison officials beat a 25-year-old detainee to death earlier this year, as Sri Lanka’s Attorney General vowed to reform the island’s prison system.

The Sri Lankan government has criticised Israel for “settlement expansion” in the West Bank and called for the implementation of UN resolutions regarding the “inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to statehood and the attainment of a two State solution,” even whilst Colombo continues its own Sinhala colonisation of the Tamil North-East.

Tamil refugees from Eelam that are currently residing in camps across Tamil Nadu, have been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown that followed, whilst continuing to face threats to their livelihood.

Besides the threat of contracting the virus in the cramped refugee camps scattered across the state, most of them have also lost a means to earn a daily wage. “Prior to the lockdown, we had been working in areas beyond Cuddalore. But now, we are unable to go to work even within Cuddalore,” Gunarathinam, an inmate of Kurinjipadi camp near Cuddalore told BBC Tamil.  More than 400 Eelam families reside at the camp.

The sick and the elderly who are stricken with conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure are being treated in hospitals like COVID-19 patients, they added, which subjects them to especially unpleasant ordeals.