Sri Lankan Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella refused to issue an apology for the government’s internationally condemned policy of forced cremations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

This policy was widely rebuked by international community and health experts which maintained that this was a violation of Muslim and Christian burial rights.

Several villages in Batticaloa have been facing a shortage in drinking water due to the ongoing drought in the region. 

Virakesari reported that over 2,000 families in the Manmunai West division have had to travel long distances to get drinking water. 

Some of the villages affected by the drought include Karavetti, Nediyamady, Thandiyadi, Gandhinagar and Unnichai. 

The drought has also affected agriculture in the area, causing a depletion in crops and livestock productivity. 

Four boats belonging to Tamil fishermen in Mullaitivu were set ablaze and burnt by unidentified people on August 20th.  

The fishermen who fish in Thannimurippu tank,  highlighted that the recent incident was not an isolated event and stated that the boats are continuously being damaged. 

The incident comes as tensions boil over illegal fishing in the tank by Sinhalese fishermen. 

A Sinhala Buddhist monk blocked and threatened a group of Tamils from accessing land which is being encroached upon by a Buddhist vihara in Mayilaththamadu, Batticaloa. 

The scheduled exhumation of the Kokkuthoduvai mass grave, planned for August 21st, has been indefinitely postponed due to a lack of funding allocated to the Mullaitivu District Secretariat for the excavation and exhumation.

File photograph 

Tamil families of the disappeared have announced a mass protest in Batticaloa on August 30th, to mark the International Day of the Disappeared and amplify their calls for accountability and justice.

Sinhala Buddhist monks and Buddhist worshippers disrupted a Tamil Pongal celebration at the Athi Aiyanar temple in Kurunthurmalai earlier today. 

Tens of thousands of families in the North-East have been affected by the severe drought in the region, IBC Tamil has reported. 

According to the Disaster Management Centre, 75,165 people in the Northern province and 63,136 people in the Eastern province have been affected by the lack of drinking water due to the drought. 

The Centre also reportedly stated that the Jaffna district has been the most affected with 70,238 people in Nedunthivu, Chavakachcheri, Maruthankerny and Sanganai having difficulting accessing drinking water. 

Remembrance events were held across the North-East today to remember the Sencholai massacre, where four Sri Lankan air force jets flew over the Vanni and dropped sixteen bombs over the Sencholai children's home for orphans, killing 53 school girls and 3 teachers.

Speaking in Mannar, Manuwal Udayachandra, president of the Association of Families Searching for Missing Relatives condemned Sri Lanka’s Office of Missing Persons (OMP).

“We initially said that we do not need the Office of Missing Persons (OMP)” Udayachandra stated.