Britain’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka praised renewed defence links between the two governments and called on the military to release more land, which is currently being occupied by the armed forces in the North-East.

Three Northern Provincial Council members were questioned by the Sri Lankan Criminal Investigation Department in relation to a press conference on Mullivaikkaal remembrance.

M. K. Sivajilingam was last week summoned to Colombo by the CID for questioning although the councillor declined to travel, suggesting instead that questioning could take place in the Jaffna district.

CID personnel travelled to Jaffna on Monday and questioned the councillor about a press conference at Jaffna Press Club on May 8th.

The Sri Lankan army donated a batch of computers to a school in Jaffna earlier this month, in a town that has become the site of a controversial Sinhala settlement.

A 38 year old Tamil man identified as father of four, Rasaiya Ravichandran, was found dead in Vaalaichchenai, Batticaloa on Friday.

His body was found within bushes on abandoned land, reported Batti News. 

Mr Ravichandran left home around midday on Thursday before calling home around 5pm, his wife told the police. 

His body has been taken to Vaalaichchenai hospital by police for a post mortem examination. 

As the splits within Sri Lanka's national unity government continued to widen president Maithripala Sirisena warned on Monday that no one could form a government without his approval according to the constitution.  

"Everybody should keep in their minds that his blessing is essential to form a new government though some groups are dreaming of changing the numbers in Parliament and capture power to form a government," the Daily Mirror quoted him as saying. 

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundare, who visited Jaffna in response to an attack on two police constables in Kokuvil on Sunday, said Sri Lanka's Army will help patrols and searches in the North-East.

The IGP, who was in Jaffna on Monday to brief the police forces on a new strategy involving search and arrest on suspicion to deal with recent attacks against police constables, 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." 

Dozens of Tamils remain in custody with trials pending under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), according to a list of cases published by Ceylon Today this weekend.

A report obtained by Ceylon Today lists the names of 84 persons, mostly Tamils from the North-East, as being held for a variety of terrorism related offences, as of 12 July 2017.

A further 12 persons are being held “pending advice of legal action by the Attorney General” as of 20 July 2017.

British politicians and Non Governmental Organisations met last week to remember the Black July anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983, participating in a panel discussion on the current situation in Sri Lanka and state sponsored genocide.

The panel, organised by the British Tamil Forum, included All Party Parliamentary Group For Tamils (APPGT) Chair MP Paul Scully, Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet and former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Theresa Villiers, Director of Sri Lanka Campaign, Richard Gowing, Advocacy Officer at Together Against Genocide (TAG) Andrew Thorpe and was chaired by Sutharshan Sukumaran of the Tamil Guardian.

Sri Lanka announced the re-opening of a police station in Batticaloa this week, nearly 30 years after the station had been shut down.

Two Sri Lankan policemen are injured after being attacked with swords in Kokkuvil, Jaffna, earlier today.

The two police officers of Koppay police station were reportedly attacked around 1.30pm by over ten men on four motorcycles while walking down Nanthavil Amman Kovil road.

Special Task Force troops and police were patrolling the area and questioning locals until around 5pm. CID intelligence personnel remain visible in the area.

Named as Suren and Thambikka, the officers are receiving treatment for their injuries at Jaffna Teaching Hospital.