Locals in Jaffna have lodged a complaint to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, stating that a drunken Sri Lankan police officer entered a home in Kayts last week and assaulted the occupants, including a woman and a 17-year-old child.

The assault reportedly happened after Sri Lankan officers conducted a raid in the region and detained a 17-year-old Tamil child over an alleged theft.

The United States has donated 820,000 additional Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccines to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health. The US has now donated a total of 3.4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and USAID has provided $17.9 million to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health. 

"The United States supports Sri Lanka's ongoing efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible," said U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Martin Kelly.  

Sri Lanka’s Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), the union for Doctors across Sri Lanka, began their strike in five provinces; Mannar, Trincomalee, Nuwara Eliya, Ratnapura, and Polonnaruwa today. After failing to be heard by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health, the doctors will now engage in an island-wide strike against the “military mentality” and “adamant and egoistic attitude” of Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Health. 

Locals in Jaffna have lodged a complaint with Sri Lankan police, after a Pillaiyar statue was found to be missing from the Kankesanthurai Kumara Temple – opposite to where a newly constructed Buddhist vihara has been erected.

The vihara was constructed in the region, after it was occupied by the Sri Lankan military and captured under the state-designated ‘High Security Zone’.

Earlier this month, the idol at the Kankesanthurai Kumara Temple directly opposite the vihara, went missing.

The US Senate has approved the nomination of veteran US diplomat Julie Chung to be the next Ambassador to Sri Lanka.

Confirmed by voice vote: Exec. Cal. #517 Julie Chung, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister Counselor, to be Ambassador of the United States to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

Nine Muslim prisoners who were transferred from Batticaloa to Badulla prison in 2019, have been brutally assaulted inside the premises of the prison earlier this month, leaving many requiring hospitalisation.

Attacked by fellow prisoners, one Musim prisoner had his jaw broken and another suffered a heavy blow on his head which required at least 13 stitches. Seven other inmates also have been gravely injured as a result of the attack.

A protest was held in Mullaitivu today, demanding justice after a 13-year-old Tamil girl was found dead last week.

The child, who has been identified as 13-year-old Yogarasa Nidarshana, was discovered in a dilapidated plot of land just a few hundred meters from her family home.

According to an autopsy carried out on her body, her body had signs of injuries to her genitals. It also revealed that she was approximately 2 months pregnant at the time.

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has written to India’s External Affairs Minister, as protests were launched in Rameswaram today, after the Sri Lankan navy seized at least eight boats and arrested 55 fishermen on the charge of poaching.

During a graduation ceremony, students at the University of Colombo refused to accept their degree certificates from the newly appointed University Chancellor, and Rajapaksa-aligned, Buddhist monk Muruththettuwe Ananda.

The act of protest follows a statement by the University of Colombo’s Science Teachers’ Association (UCSTA) expressing their opposition to Ananda's appointment as Chancellor.

Responding to a joint letter signed by seven UN Special Rapporteurs calling for a moratorium on the use of Sri Lanka's Prevention of Terrorism Act; the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) has dismissed the statement as "factually incorrect" and noting that they were only provided 48 hours to comment.

Addressing the letter the GOSL notes that the fundamental right petitions against the PTA are still being considered by Sri Lanka's Supreme Court and further claimed that they were adopting a "two-pronged approach towards amending counter-terrorism legislation".