October 2026

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Dayasiri Jayasekara, an opposition lawmaker, challenged the government in Parliament on Tuesday over commemorations for Thileepan, a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who died on a hunger strike in 1987, asking why such events were permitted while the separatist group remains banned in Sri Lanka. Mr. Jayasekara, who represents Kurunegala District for the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, put the question to Aruna Jayasekara, the deputy minister of defense, during the cha

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A medical board has determined that Maj. Gen. Suresh Salley, the former head of Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service, is fit to be discharged from the National Hospital in Colombo, the attorney general’s office told a magistrate on Tuesday. Mr. Salley, who has been hospitalized for nearly four months while being held under a detention order, is expected to be returned to the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department after his discharge, the Fort Magistrate’s Court

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Detectives in Colombo questioned Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, the former Tamil Tiger eastern commander known as Karuna Amman, for more than four hours on Monday in connection with an abduction inquiry. Mr. Muralitharan appeared at the Criminal Investigation Department in the morning after being summoned and left around noon after investigators recorded his statement. The authorities did not immediately disclose which case prompted the questioning or what connection, if any