Residents of Keppapulavu in Mullaitivu protested for the twelfth consecutive day on Sunday, demanding the release of their ancestral lands, which have remained under military occupation since 2009.

21 Black Tiger elite commandos who took part in the raid on a Sri Lankan airbase in Anuradhapura, 2007

Tamil families in Kepapilavu have continued their protest for a ninth consecutive day, demanding the immediate release of 59.5 acres of ancestral residential land still occupied by the Sri Lankan military more than 17 years after the end of the armed conflict.

The Sri Lankan government will be represented at the state funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran this weekend, in another sign of the island’s long-standing ties with Iran, a state that provided military, financial and diplomatic support to Colombo during its war on Tamils.

Former Navy commander Wasantha Karannagoda, a UK- and US-sanctioned figure accused of serious human rights violations, has been arrested over allegations that he helped alter naval recruitment procedures to benefit Yoshitha Rajapaksa.

The Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court has ordered former State Intelligence Service Director Major General (Retired) Suresh Sallay to provide the Criminal Investigation Department with the passwords to his mobile phone and computer as part of the ongoing investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.

The annual Mahotsavam of the historic Nainativu Nagapooshani Amman Temple concluded this week, its closing days drawing thousands of devotees to an island whose ancient Hindu and Naga heritage is increasingly being overshadowed by a state-driven project of Sinhala Buddhist majoritarianism.

More than a year after Dilshi Amshika, a 15-year-old Tamil student at Colombo's Ramanathan Hindu Ladies' College, died by suicide following alleged sexual abuse by a teacher, the investigation into her death remains incomplete, prompting renewed criticism of the delays in Sri Lanka's justice system.

The International Monetary Fund has urged Sri Lanka to "stay the course" on its austerity programme, after the Middle East war and a surge in fuel prices knocked the island's recovery, at the close of a fund mission to Colombo.

The former Sri Lankan state minister and paramilitary leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, widely known as Pillayan, has been remanded until 13 July after appearing before the Batticaloa Magistrate's Court on Tuesday in connection with five killings carried out in the Eastern Province in 2008.

A Sri Lankan army captain has been arrested over the alleged sexual harassment of a young woman on a bus in Jaffna, the latest such case to draw attention to the conduct of the security forces in the heavily militarised North-East.