Six Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested and charged of smuggling heroin by the Sri Lankan navy were acquitted by the Jaffna High Court last week.

Despite 15 witnesses testifying for the prosecution, including naval officers, police officers and government officials, High Court judge Annalingam Premashankar said the prosecution’s evidence lacked credibility and cited further procedural errors and legal flaws in his ruling.

The six fishermen were identified following their arrest on April 1, 2017 as Shekhar Arul, Thirukkutty Ponnusamy, Subramaniam Thamilmani, Subramaniam Gajendran, Shankararaja Jayaseelan and Subramaniam Pakiyaraj, all from Karaikal.

British parliamentarians filed an Early Day Motion calling for steps to be taken to ensure that clean drinking water is fully accessible in Northern Sri Lanka and expressing their concern over Colombo’s refusal to allow independent assessments of water quality in the region.

The motion, signed by parliamentarians from the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, the Democratic Unionist Party and the Scottish National Party, was filed earlier this week, days after an event at the Houses of Parliament discussing Tamil genocide recognition.

The Sri Lankan navy has arrested a Tamil youth in Mannar for allegedly sharing videos of “LTTE activities” on social media.

An official navy website reported that the 20-year-old Tamil man was arrested “during a raid carried out at Pesalei area in Mannar”.

A Sri Lankan army dog and handler won the Washington-based Marshall Legacy Institute’s (MLI) ‘Team of the Year - 2019’ award this week, as the island continues to have military relations around the globe despite concerns of rights abuses committed by troops.

As Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa launches his campaign to become the island’s next president, 47 Roots looks back on his previous statements and his hardline Sinhala nationalist appeal.

Former Chief Minister of the Northern Province C V Wigneswaran denied claims he is backing any of the candidates in the upcoming Sri Lankan presidential election and said that with the exception of one outsider, all other Sinhala candidates have ignored demands put forward by Tamil political parties.

Releasing a statement earlier today, the former Supreme Court Justice also said he had not called for a boycott of the polls as reported in some Southern media outlets.

Wigneswaran’s TMK and four other Tamil political parties had put forward a set of 13 demands to all candidates in next month’s polls.

Sajith Premadasa, the United National Party’s candidate for Sri Lanka’s upcoming presidential polls, launched his election manifesto this morning, pledging to strengthen the military, increase UN Peacekeeping involvement, create a “National Intelligence Act” and implement a “Sri Lanka First” foreign policy.

The manifesto was launched after presented it to senior a Sinhala Buddhist monks including the Chief Prelate of Malwatta chapter, this morning.