Sri Lankan Defence Secretary, and accused war criminal, Kamal Gunaratne, vowed to “punishing the culprits” behind the Easter Sunday bombing and to strengthen “national security”.

The victims of the Easter Sunday bomb attack in Sri Lanka last year, were paid tribute by families of the disappeared in Vavuniya, on Tuesday.

Tuesday marked one year since the incident that took away the lives of hundreds of civilians in a coordinated unprecedented act of violence.

Sri Lanka’s president boasted on Twitter earlier this week that his regime was ranked 9th in the “Global Response to Infectious Diseases Index” – a ranking system devised by a little known Australian accountancy organisation that has close ties to Sri Lanka’s ruling party.

An initiative to provide free walk-in medical camps for the villagers of Madu in Mannar, was established to assist them with their healthcare needs at a time where the COVID-19 pandemic has made access to check-ups and medicine very difficult. 

The second instalment of these mobile medical camps were set up for villagers on Saturday (18^th April), where around 100 people were able to get free medical check-ups and medicines.

More than a decade after the end of the armed conflict, the Sri Lankan military continues to occupy vast swathes of land reports Reuters, as it spoke to Tamils on the island and abroad who are attempting to reclaim their land.

The British and American envoys to Sri Lanka met with the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Rauf Hakeem this week, where he says they expressed “solidarity”.

Sri Lankan police officers announced the arrest of a man who allegedly fired a T-56 rifle in Amparai this week.

Officers in Sammanthurai reported that gunshots were fired on Monday evening at approximately 9.30pm.

They subsequently arrested a man who was in possession of a T-56 rifle.

A Tamil fisherman who was attacked and bitten by Sri Lankan sailors last week has spoken out about the assault, stating that the military “behaved like cannibals”.

The Human Rights Commission Of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has launched an investigation into the incident in which a young Tamil man from Jaffna among several other youngsters, were brutally assaulted by off-duty police officers and dragged to a police station.

The HRCSL sent a notice on Monday (20^th April) requesting the Jaffna senior superintendent of police, to explain the action taken in response to the incident.

A young Tamil man from Jaffna among several other youngsters, were brutally attacked by drunk off-duty police officers and viciously dragged to the local police station.

23-year-old Mutturasa Kannadasan, was attacked in his home in Araly, Jaffna and taken to Vaddukoddai police station, around 8pm on Saturday (18^th April). 

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary rejected reports that the Indian army would be deployed to Sri Lanka as part of regional coronavirus prevention efforts, stating that the Sri Lankan military “can handle (the) coronavirus threat effectively”.

One of the three members of Sri Lanka’s election commission expressed his fear of disagreeing with the war crimes accused head of the army, ahead of a meeting that took place on Monday which announced the scheduling of parliamentary elections.

In a piece published on Saturday, Ratnajeevan Hoole said that the inclusion of army chief Shavendra Silva, who currently leads Sri Lanks’s coronavirus rask force, and Director General of Health Services Anil Jasinghe was to “arm-twist the Commission into agreeing to 28 May for elections”.

The Indian High Commission in Colombo has denied reports appearing in the India press, which claimed that Delhi was preparing to send troops to Sri Lanka as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Press Trust of India quoted “official sources” as stating the Indian army had prepared several “rapid response teams for dispatching to friendly neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan”.