Former Sri Lankan minister and leader of the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) Rishad Bathiudeen MP has spoken out against the arrest of his brother in connection with last year’s Easter Sunday attacks, alleging that the arrest was an act of political revenge.

The former minister’s brother Riyaz Bathiudeen was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Puttalam on Tuesday.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is currently considering resuming day-to-day economic activity at the provincial level to safeguard the national economy, reports the President’s Media Division.

Rajapaksa has instructed the  Provincial Directors of Health to issue recommendations to ensure normal activities in the industrial, agricultural and business sector through the Director-General of Health.

He further stated that relaxing restrictions will be considered at each province on a case by case basis.

The family of a prominent Muslim lawyer have denounced his arrest as “illegal and arbitrary,” stating it was acarried out by Sri Lankan authorities “with the intention of stifling dissent” after he was  arrested over the alleged involvement in the Easter Sunday bombings a year ago.

Hejaaz Hizbullah was arrested under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) on Tuesday, alongside six other people.

The following poem, reproduced from Adi Magazine, has been written by an activist based in Jaffna, working with war-affected Tamil communities.

The mother of a healthcare worker on the frontlines of Britain’s NHS writes about how it feels to be the parent of a key worker during the coronavirus pandemic.

With healthcare workers across the globe working to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, we look at some of the Tamils on the frontlines of the battle to save lives.

From nurses and doctors to our paramedics and porters, every single contribution is invaluable. And alongside thousands of other workers, the Tamil community has been actively involved in efforts to fight the pandemic.

Sri Lanka's government announced that the island-wide curfew is to be extended until April 20 as the number of coronavirus cases rises to 238. 

The districts of Colombo, Puttalam, Jaffna,  Kandy and Kalutara are still being identified as "high risk zones". 

There have been over 19,000 arrests for violating curfew regulations since the curfew was first imposed on March 20. 

A Tamil family of four from Biloela - fighting deportation since being detained in March 2018 - will find out whether they can stay in Australia when the Federal Court delivers its decision on the family’s last-ditch legal bid, over the phone.

The family’s court proceedings which became a matter of nationwide attention and usually sees large crowds of community members and supporters, will have its final decision delivered directly to lawyers over the phone this Friday, due to social distancing restrictions implemented because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, has called for a partial lift of the state-imposed lockdown, which aimed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, to maintain the economy.

Wickremesinghe’s statement came yesterday as he raised concerns over Sri Lanka’s testing program stating:

“I do not know whether Sri Lanka has necessary equipment to carry out testing. Government actually failed to get testing equipment, ventilators and face masks initially”

The People for Equality And Relief in Lanka (PEARL) condemned the Sri Lanka government’s decision to make cremations compulsory for coronavirus (COVID-19) victims as “an affront to religious sensibilities” and that the decision “further displays the state’s persistent disregard for the sensibilities of non-Sinhala Buddhist communities,” in a press release issued yesterday.  

PEARL insisted that “Sri Lanka persists in implementing measures that marginalise its ethnic communities and religious minorities,” as we near the one-year anniversary of the Easter bombings and the subsequent riots targeted against the Muslim community.