Hindu temples in Batticaloa have been attacked at least eleven times in the last three years, an MP for the district has said.

TNA MP S Viyalenthiran said that attacks on Hindu temples went underreported but that they were taking place at a worrying rate across the North-East, with Batticaloa no exception.

The parliamentarian said that temples which neighboured different communities were most vulnerable to attack and that the Sri Lankan government had failed to promote reconciliation in the three years it had been in power.

Around 3000 acres of privately-owned land in Amparai remains under military or other state occupation according to activists in the district.

Sri Lanka's former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa accused the current coalition government of mismanagement which has allowed for an inflation crisis. 

"[There is] no confidence in this government and they can’t control it," Rajapaksa said. "They are not doing anything. I mean we want to defeat this government. We want to have elections. The first thing is to have elections, so we are fighting for it."

The government has rebuked his claims and assert that it was his administration that has caused the problem. 

Sri Lankan police on Friday filed an injunction in an attempt to prevent an event commemorating Lt Col Thileepan's fast unto death. 

The event is currently being planned for September 26 to take place in Nallur, Jaffna. 

The police allege the event is for a member of a 'terrorist organisation banned in Sri Lanka and many countries' and have also sought a court order to remove red and yellow banners and a photograph of Thileepan placed at his memorial site in Nallur. 

The court hearing is due to take place on September 25. 

Another protest took place today demanding that all Tamil political prisoners be released. 

The protest, which took the form of a symbolic hunger strike, in solidarity with the eight political prisoners at Anuradhapuram prison who have been protesting for their release, took place outside the Government Agent Office. 

The Sri Lankan military has once more held events with Tamil schoolchildren at schools in the Vanni last week, as it continues with its militarisation of the North-East.

The Sri Lankan government is undermining its own Office of Missing Persons (OMP) with the appointment of Mahinda Samarasinghe, a politician who has denounced reports of enforced disappearances, to head a cabinet sub-committee said the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP).

Sri Lankan announced that Samarasinghe, who was human rights minister during the Rajapaksa government and repeatedly rejected allegations of war crimes, has been appointed to a 10-member cabinet sub-committee, which is expected to implement the interim recommendations of the OMP.

Scotland‘s police will train a contingent of Sri Lankan policemen later this month, including a controversial head of the Sri Lanka Police IGP Pujith Jayasundara who is being investigated over bribery and corruption allegations.

Jayasundara is scheduled to leave for the UK later this week to undergo a training programme under the Scotland Yard, according to the Daily Mirror. He will be in the country until October 6^th.

The Sri Lankan army declared open a pre-school that it had constructed in Jaffna last week, as it continues with its militarisation of the Tamil homeland.

Sri Lanka's president Maithripala Sirisena arrived at New York today, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly and meet with senior officials this week.

Sirisena told reporters last week that during his visit he will ask the United Nations not pursue accountability for war crimes committed by Sri Lankan troops and will instead call on the Human Rights Council to “remove these charges”.

He is being accompanied on the visit by Sri Lankan ministers Rajitha Senaratne, Champika Ranawaka and Mano Ganeshan.