The Sri Lankan army co-ordinated the donation of bicycles in Kilinochchi yesterday as part of the Bikes for Life campaign started by international cricketer Kumara Sangakkara.

The Sri Lankan army held a ceremony to showcase Jaffna high school students who achieved the highest grades in their  GCE O/L Examinations in Jaffna this weekend.

An increase in the presence and visibility of armed forces has been reported in Jaffna this week, following the Sri Lankan police chief calling on the military to help in patrolling the district.

The Inspector General of Police was in Jaffna following an attack on two police constables and said, “we are going to have the assistance of the STF and Armed Forces. We are going to start combined patrols and searches to find those responsible for the attack.”

The Sri Lankan government is attempting to move the cases of Tamil political prisoners to Sinhalese districts, the prisoners’ families have complained to the Northern Province Chief Minister.

In a meeting on Wednesday, family members of a number of political prisoners urged Chief Minister Wigneswaran to pressure the government to keep their relatives’ cases in Tamil courts and secure their release.

The North-East has been the most affected by the current drought that has affected the island with hundreds of thousands suffering, according to the Northern Province Disaster Management Center.

The Island reported the Center as stating Jaffna was the hardest hit region, with 126,296 persons of 34,049 families affected by the conditions.

Areas in the north have not received rainfall for more than eight months it added.

Sri Lankan police have arrested a Buddhist monk in Colombo as he staged a protest against the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) on Wednesday.

Watareka Vijitha Thera was arrested by Colombo Fort Police as he protested outside the Presidential Secretariat.

The Daily Mirror alleges he was “behaving in a violent manner” while Colombo Gazette reports was arrested for “disrupting the duties of officials”.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Finance and Mass Media said media institutions on the island had a responsibility to report the truth, as he accused certain outlets of producing fake news.

ColomboPage reported Minister Mangala Samaraweera as stating “it is the responsibility of the media to impart truthful information to the public with self-regulation”.

Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has signed an affidavit testifying against two senior Army officers who face corruption charges.

Mr Rajapaksa’s testimony was in response to claims by the senior army officers that they had acted under the instruction of the former defence secretary.

Former Army Commander Lt Gen Daya Ratnayake and former Additional Defence Secretary Sripala Hettiarachchi face allegations of multimillion rupee fraud involving removal of iron from the Kankesanthurai Cement Factory situated in the High Security Zone in Jaffna.

Sri Lanka’s Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundera during the second day of his visit to Jaffna said the threat of the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam has not been removed.

Speaking at a meeting with religious leaders and civil society organisations, Mr Jayasundera said,

The former navy spokesperson was re-remanded until August 10 today by the Colombo Fort magistrate over the abduction and disappearance of 11 Tamil youths in 2008, reports Daily Mirror. 

Commodore D K P Dassanayake was arrested last month after being identified as a suspect in the crime by Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Division. 

The leader of the PHU defended the former navy spokesperson and said the arrest "was merely an attempt made by supporters of the LTTE to get back at the individuals who helped defeat the LTTE using the government."