^(Virakesari)

The Sri Lankan government recently provided police protection and increased military presence for a group of Sinhala Buddhist monks who are undertaking a pilgrimage on foot to Kurunthurmalai, where an illegally built Buddhist temple is situated.

The increased security for the monks contrasts sharply with the surveillance of Tamil devotees by police during a pooja at the Athi Aiyanar temple in the same area last week.

Tamil families of the disappeared protested in Kilinochchi today as part of their ongoing campaign to know the fate of their forcibly disappeared relatives. 

The families gathered outside Kandaswamy temple in Kilinochchi to demand an international mechanism to investigate the disappearances of their relatives, many of whom have been disappeared at the hands of Sri Lanka's security forces. 

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has refused approval to award procurement of the 484 MW wind power plant in Mannar and Pooneryn to Adani Green Energy.

The PUSCSL stated that the information submitted for approval by  Adani Green Energy SL Ltd. (AGESL),did not adequately assess the least cost and technical compatibility. 

Tamil National People’s Front MP Selvarajah Kajendren renewed calls for the immediate release of Tamil political prisoners, noting how some continue to have new charges laid out against them under the much-criticised Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

“The political prisoners who are in the New Magazine Prison have been there for over 15 years. They are all undergoing mental agony, stress, and depression. They should be released immediately,” he told reporters after visiting the prisoners.

The Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) have urged India to reject the 13th Amendment and instead support a federal solution that will allow the Tamil nation their right to self-determination as well as referring Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for the Tamil genocide. 

In a letter to India's Minister of External Affairs, Subramanyam Jaishankar, the TNPF's General Secretary Selvarajah Kajendren stated that the amendment failed to prevent the Tamil genocide and that the political situation had become worse than it was when the amendment was first introduced.  

A tense situation arose during the Mannar District Development Committee meeting held this week when several Tamils questioned the basis upon which the government of Sri Lanka had de-gazetted the Vidattaltivu Nature Reserve, allowing private companies to set up an aquaculture industrial farm. 

Weeks after the US Navy and Marine Corps conducted joint maritime exercises, the United States has transferred equipment to the Sri Lankan military, as defence ties between the two governments continues to grow.

Hundreds of landless Tamil farmers who have been engaged in paddy cultivation in the Illupaikadavai area in Manthai West in Mannar have written to Sri Lanka’s president demanding he issue them land deeds, so that their rightful ownership of the land can be recognised.

The Sri Lanka Navy confirmed that a sailor had “succumbed to his injuries,” after the security forces launched an operation that ended with the arrest of 10 Indian fishermen and the seizure of a trawler in Jaffna earlier today.

Official reports from the navy state that the 10 fishermen were apprehended Kankesanthurai in Jaffna.

Tamil families of the disappeared held a rally today in Gandhi Park, Batticaloa, as they continue to search for answers and justice for their forcibly disappeared loved ones. 

Tamil mothers and fathers clutched photographs of their children who were forcibly disappeared by Sri Lanka’s security forces or government-aligned paramilitary forces.