Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed convicted extremist monk, Galagodaaththe Gnanasara to head a Presidential Task Force focused on achieving “One Country One Law”.

Gnanasara was previously found guilty on two counts and sentenced to 6 months in prison for threatening the wife of Prageeth Eknaligoda; a critic of the then government in 2010. He was released from prison following a presidential pardon. 

Sri Lankan police have arrested two illegal sand miners with tractors in Mullaitivu on Monday. 

The police reportedly caught the men in Kaiveli engaged in illegal sand smuggling activities based on a tip.

Police are conducting further investigations and are taking steps to present the suspects before the Mullaitivu court.

The Sri Lankan military forces have failed to release Tamil land in Mullaitivu despite moving their army camp out of Puthukkudiyiruppu, with Tamil families in the area continuing to suffer from displacement.

The displaced families asked, “it has been several months since the camp moved, why hasn’t our land been returned to us?"

Tamil families resettled in Puthukkudiyiruppu in 2009, when the army seized 19 acres of land for the construction of the 682nd Brigade army camp.

Sinhala farmers have taken to the streets in Medamulana to express their outrage at the President's blanket ban on the import of chemical fertilisers which have resulted in a plummeting of crop yields and further worsened the country's food shortages.

A full page advert in this morning’s The Herald warns the people of Scotland that Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who stands credibly accused of war crimes and genocide, will be coming to Glasgow next week.

Video footage from The Morning Lk

Following the brutal assault of a civilian by a Senior Deputy Inspector General (SDIG) in Ratnapura, Sri Lankan police have launched an investigation stating that such incidents would seriously damage the reputation of the police department.

The Sri Lankan army planted coconut trees in Northern Jaffna on occupied Tamil land, residents are raising concerns, whether the land will be returned to its owners.  

According to a statement released by the Vali North Resettlement Society, “soldiers are cutting down coconut trees on private property [then] preparing the same land to plant new coconut trees, they are trying to permanently seize the land.”

In an interview with the Sunday Morning, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran spoke on a range of issues affecting the Tamil homeland of the North-East including the implementation of the 13^th amendment; repeal of Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA); development issues; and continued police brutality.

Responding to the announcement of a new constitution and electoral system before the provincial elections, leader of the Tamil Makkal Thesiya Kootan (TMTK) CV Wigneswaran urged the government to respect the rights of Tamils to self-determination.

He added that Sri Lanka’s Sinhala Buddhist leaders had always tried to undermine the concept of a Tamil homeland.

“Everyone must admit that Tamils have the same rights as everyone else in Sri Lanka. The North and East of Sri Lanka are the homelands of the Tamils” he told Jaffna-based journalists.

Sri Lankan government officials are reportedly in talks with Spanish and Japanese investors over plans a 5.6 km racing track in Hambantota, despite Sri Lanka's worsening economic crisis and damning human rights record.