A signature campaign calling for the repeal of Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the withdrawal of proposed new legislation was launched in Jaffna this week under the theme “Neither the old nor the new”.

Sri Lanka’s government has pledged to release a portion of privately owned lands in Valikamam North, Jaffna, ahead of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in April, even as the wider military occupation of the Tamil homeland remains firmly in place.

A group of twenty-five Indian fishermen who had entered waters off Kankesanthurai and engaged in fishing activities have been arrested by Sri Lankan naval personnel, as Eelam Tamils complained of a growing number of incursions.

Hardline Sinhala nationalist Wimal Weerawansa has accused Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake of failing to confront "separatism", in a speech delivered in Matara, a southern district often viewed as a bastion of Sinhala nationalist politics. Addressing a gathering of supporters, Weerawansa argued that Buddhism stands apart from other faiths because it does not produce extremist movements.

Sri Lanka’s Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne, is facing mounting political pressure after the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) decided to initiate a formal investigation into complaints lodged against him, intensifying scrutiny of the head of the legislature and chair of the Constitutional Council.

The UK's Deputy Prime Minster David Lammy is expected to visit Sri Lanka on Tuesday to meet with the island's leaders. 

The final rites of the Tamil teenager who was fatally shot by Sri Lankan police in Allaipiddy were held today at his residence in Sithankeni, Vaddukoddai, as relatives and members of the public demanded accountability for the killing.

The Kumarapuram massacre, in which 26 Tamil civilians were killed by the Sri Lankan military and a 15-year-old girl was gang-raped, was commemorated today, marking 30 years without justice. 

Sri Lankan police are facing fresh accusations of attempting to obscure accountability following the fatal shooting of a Tamil teenager in Jaffna, amid claims that authorities have misrepresented the boy’s age and sought to intimidate his family into silence.

Environmentalists and wildlife officials have warned that wild elephants in the Amparai District continue to die after consuming improperly disposed waste, accusing Sri Lankan government authorities and local councils of long-standing neglect in addressing a crisis that has persisted for years.