Category: Local News

The resolution to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to probe causes for the Easter Sunday terror attacks, which killed over 250 persons and caused injuries to over 500, was passed in Parliament yesterday (22), with an amendment.

President Maithripala Sirisena, yesterday, signed documents granting a presidential pardon to Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary Ven Galagodatte Gnanasara Thero, according to sources.

A Police Constable has been killed in a shootout during a raid carried out to seize an illicit liquor racket this evening (22), the Police Spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekara said.

President Maithripala Sirisena presented “Vishishta Seva Vibhushanaya (Distinguished Service Decoration)” medals to the senior officers in the Sri Lanka Army, Navy and Air-Force today (22nd) morning at the Presidential Secretariat.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the Home Affairs, Local Government and Provincial Council’s Minister Vajira Abeywardene to ensure that all streets in Sri Lanka are named only in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages.

The circular for paying government employees the Rs. 2500 interim monthly allowance has been issued.

The State of Emergency imposed in the country has been extended by another month from today (May 22) considering the situation of the country.

President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed the police and security forces not to close roads in a manner that would inconvenience the public during VIP movement.

Thirty-two persons, who were arrested over the unrest in Minuwangoda, have been granted bail by the Minuwangoda Magistrate’s Court today.

A clash between two groups of people in Weheragodalla, Grand Pass over a personal dispute, claimed the life of one individual.

NEW DELHI: Even as DNA tests conclusively proved that Zahran Hashim, chief suspect of the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka, died in the attacks, India worries that the growing tensions between the nation’s Buddhist majority and Muslim minority might plunge the island back into another crisis of the kind that saw a bloody war culminating in the LTTE’s elimination a decade back.

Informed sources said, Minister Rishard Bathiudeen had told the United National Front (UNF) Parliamentary group meeting yesterday (21), if all Parliamentarians in the Government urge him to resign from his Ministerial portfolio, he will do so and sit in the Opposition as an independent.

The NFF charges that the JVP has moved a no-confidence motion against the government with an intention to save Minister Rishard Bathiudeen.

Weeping Sri Lankan Catholics lit candles and prayed in a memorial service outside a bombed church on Tuesday, one month after Easter bombings by Islamist militants killed more than 250 people.

The Government Analyst’s Department said today the DNA tests had matched and confirmed the identity of the suicide bombers including that of Mohomad Zaharan, police spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekera said.

Former DIG Nalaka de Silva, who was arrested in connection with the alleged VIP assassination plot, was released on bail by the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court today.