_{SL Mass Media Minister, Keheliya Rambukwella,}

Sri Lanka’s Mass Media Minister, Keheliya Rambukwella, says the government plans to register local users of all social media platforms, insisting that social media needs to be regulated to curb inappropriate digital content the country.

An undetonated mortar shell was recovered in Vavuniya by Sri Lankan authorities on Tuesday.

The Sri Lankan State Intelligence Service was informed by local sources that explosive shell devices had been discovered in a field.

Sri Lanka High Commissioner to Pakistan, vice-admiral Mohan Wijewickrema, has held discussions with Pakistan’s Navy chief Admiral Amjad Niazi over maritime security and bilateral cooperation.

Meeting with Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK, Saroja Sirisena, UK Trade Minister, Mervyn Davies raised concerns over Sri Lanka’s policy of forced cremations and denial of religious rights to Muslims.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has spoken out against Sri Lanka’s policy of forced cremations, describing it as “violation of their fundamental rights”.

TNA spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran released a statement maintaining that:

“The denial of the right of the Muslim people to dispose of their dead bodies in keeping with the tenets of their religion is a violation of their fundamental right and should not continue,”

Art by Shaumya

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam told Sri Lanka’s parliament that Tamil voices would ‘not be destroyed’ in a fiery address earlier this month, as refought off several interruptions from Sinhala lawmakers.

Tamil lawmakers from across the different political parties have written to Sri Lanka’s president, calling for the release of Tamil political prisoners.

The parliamentarians, 15 from across the island and from various political parties, said that more than 80 political prisoners had been arrested from 1994 until 2009 and “are being confined for a long period in prisons”.

Amongst them are those who have been “detained without any judicial trial” said the letter.

The Indo-Lanka accord “is no longer valid” proclaimed Sri Lanka’s Minister of Public Security and Rajapaksa enthusiast Sarath Weerasekara this week as he once more spoke out against the devolution of powers on the island.

The accord, which stated Sri Lanka is “a multiethnic and multilingual society” and that the “Northern and Eastern provinces are areas of historic habitation of the Tamil -speaking people” led Sri Lanka to bring about the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which pledged to devolve power to a merged North-East.

Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary said that his government believes “once you are a terrorist, you are always a terrorist,” as he spoke to Business World about reconciliation on the island last month.

"One thing we have to understand, reconciliation can not be forced,” said Admiral Jayanath Colombage, when asked about whether his government would devolve power to the Tamil provinces on the island.

“There can not be a good terrorist and a bad terrorist, right?” he continued “Once you are a terrorist, you are always a terrorist. That is what we believe in. We have suffered immensely because of terrorism and we don’t want to suffer any more. And we don’t want to promote terrorism, or at least see promotion of terrorism in any part of the world.”