Over a dozen Sri Lankan police officers from the country’s Police Narcotic Bureau (PNB) have been arrested for their alleged involvement in an illegal drug ring.

According to Al Jazeera, the officers from the PNB helped to smuggle illicit drugs into the country; store them within safe houses; ran fake raids; and then siphoned off a set portion of the stolen goods, securing millions in profit.

Amnesty International announced that Ramzy Razeek, an online activist was granted bail by the Colombo High Court after a hearing on Thursday morning, after spending more than five months behind bars in Sri Lankan detention.

Razeek was arrested in April after he wrote a post on his Facebook wall on the need for an “ideological Jihad” to stop organized anti-Muslim propaganda. His post was met with violence against him and his family, leading the activist to declare he would be self-censoring due to the treats he faced.

Former Northern Provincial Council member Shivajilingam has been released on bail by the Jaffna Magistrate Court after he was arrested by the police for paying tribute to thiyaga theepam Lt Col Thileepan defying a ban imposed by Sri Lankan authorities on his commemoration.

Reporting on the developments towards transitional justice since his first visit in March 2015, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, noted that Sri Lanka appears to have missed a “historic opportunity” for sustainable peace due to the government’s “lack of commitment”

Sri Lankan police have summoned the Batticaloa Organiser of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) over attempts to commemorate the anniversary of Lt Col Thileepan’s fast unto death, as the security forces continue their crackdown across the Tamil homeland.

The TNPF said that Dharmaratanam Suresh has been summoned by police for questioning, in a tweet released earlier today.

“To add salt to injury, we continue to get served with documents in Sinhala despite us making clear that we need them in Tamil or English,” the party added.

British Tamils protested outside the prime minister’s office at Downing Street last week, calling on the UK to arrested and investigate Sri Lanka’s Defence Attaché Brigadier BDSN Bothota for genocide.

Dozens of protestors gathered in London last week, calling for Bothota to be declared a ‘persona non grata’.

Local Tamils in a Vavuniya village took to the streets early this week protesting against a statement made by Dileepan, an Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) parliamentarian, who they claimed insulted the village at a recent meeting of the provincial coordination group.

Dileepan, an MP from the Aachipuram constituency, reportedly stated that Aachipuram is a village ‘rife with drug abuse’.

7 Canadian Tamils have concluded their “Walk for Justice” this Monday, after walking over 400 km within 14 days to the Capital on Parliament Hill, demanding justice for enforced disappearances of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan foreign ministry has slammed the United Nations over reports that senior military officials oversaw crimes against humanity and labelled the reports as “unacceptable”, as Colombo defended its pardon of a Sri Lankan soldier who was convicted for war crimes.

“The Government rejects the references made to false and unsubstantiated allegations levelled against senior military officials being appointed to key positions of institutions,” said Sri Lanka’s representative at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday.

<p>Sri Lankan police have banned activities commemorating Lt Col Thileepan’s fast unto death in Vavuniya, as part of a crackdown on remembrance across the North-East.</p> <p>Prabhakaran Janujan, a Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) member of the Vavuniya Municipal Council said that Vavuniya Police have denied permission for an event that was to be held in Vavuniya today, Wednesday 16 September.</p>