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Sri Lanka will host two high-profile foreign leaders next month: the Maldives’ President, Mohamed Muizzu, and Viet Nam’s President, To Lam, who is also the Secretary General of the country’s Communist Party.

The Maldivian leader who will be in Sri Lanka on May 4-5 will be accompanied by four ministers and will hold bilateral talks that will cover areas such as education, health and agriculture sector cooperation.

The Vietnamese leader, who will also visit India, will arrive with a 200-member delegation. A forward party is already in Colombo to supervise the arrangements for the visit, which will take place from May 7 to 8.

Several important areas of bilateral interests will be discussed during the visit, senior government sources said. Several MoUs relating to trade and tourism will also be signed.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake visited Viet Nam in May last year to coincide with the International Vesak Day celebrations in the country.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Health Minister Mikhail Murashko will also visit the country next month. He will be arriving on May 4 and will sign several MoUs during his visit.

CID at Ranil’s residence: Germ of suspicion in surgical masks

Six Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers visited the home of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe to record a statement from his wife, Professor Maithree Wickramasinghe.

When they arrived at his Colombo residence, they were offered surgical masks to be worn in the presence of the former president who has undergone a heart operation recently in Singapore and needed to take precautions as he recovers.

However, the CID officers turned down the offer and left the place, only to return after purchasing face masks from a nearby pharmacy. They took nearly four  hours to record the statement.

Tamil Nadu politics reverberates in Lanka’s north

A buidling in Jaffna carries a billboard in support of the DMK

Ahead of Tamil Nadu going to the polls on Thursday to elect 234 members for the state legislative assembly, the highly contested tensions between the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), actor-turned-politician C. Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam and other parties reverberated even across the Palk Strait.

In Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna district, posters and banners were put up in support of actor Vijay, who has a significant fan base in Sri Lanka.

While the election saw an all-time high turnout of 85.15 per cent, many electoral observers predicted the actor might win a significant number of seats with his star power.

Tamil Nadu politics had long been dominated by either M. Karunanidhi, a screenwriter who used films for political propaganda; actor M.G. Ramachandran; or actress Jayalalitha – all of whom became chief ministers of the state.

Like offline canvassing, Northern Province-based social media users and influencers also conducted online campaigns, urging Tamil Nadu voters to vote for certain parties. A group of supporters of Naam Thamizar Party leader Seeman also put up banners in Jaffna to show solidarity.

One of the confused Jaffnaite onlookers said of the multitude of banners, “It is the Tamil Nadu voters who have to decide with their votes – not us, at the end of the day.”

Namal moved by Lankan refugee’s protest in TN

A 37-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil man who is a refugee in Tamil Nadu was in the news recently when he protested outside a Collector’s office, begging to be deported back to Sri Lanka after 25 years in India.

“My life is like an orphan’s,” the man cried out while making the appeal. SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa, who tagged the post on his X handle, extended support to the man.

The Lankan refugee staging a protest outside a Collector's office in Tamil Nadu

“Heartbreaking to see a young man pleading for his future. The situation of Sri Lankan-origin refugees in Tamil Nadu remains deeply concerning; we cannot allow more young lives to be lost because of identity,” he said. He urged Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath to intervene and take immediate steps to ensure this young man can return home safely.

From KKS cement to new industrial park

All that remains of the KKS cement factory, once an iconic industrial giant

Decades ago, Kankesanthurai (KKS) was a bustling town, its cement factory providing thousands of jobs while families in the area benefited from the economic activity.

The state-owned factory was established under the initiative of then Industries Minister G.G. Ponnambalam QC. He and his party, the Tamil Congress, were part of the government at the time. During his brief tenure as a cabinet minister, he also opened the Paranthan chemical factory and the Valachchenai paper factory.

However, due to the thirty-year separatist armed conflict in the north, the KKS factory was abandoned, and the entire region was declared a high-security zone—a status that remains so to this day.

Veteran chilli farmers in Jaffna still vividly recall building their homes with “KKS cement” in the 1960s, during the premiership of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, when the local agrarian economy flourished.

Yesterday, a government delegation led by Deputy Finance and Planning Minister Anil Jayantha visited the abandoned factory to assess the possibility of converting it into a 400-acre industrial park to promote local industries.

Police action against media mars monks’ peace march

The US-based Buddhist monks’ Walk for Peace has been drawn into controversy after police prevented several journalists from covering the walk.

Their reason for the refusal is that the coverage of the peace walk is the exclusive domain of one media institution, but using this excuse the police were seen harassing journalists and photographers who went to cover the high-profile walk led by Vietnamese monk Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, who along with the Peace Dog Aloka has drawn large multi-religious crowds.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association (SLWJA) has written to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, complaining about the manhandling of journalists by a senior official at the President’s Secretariat while trying to cover the event.

It described the incident as “thuggish and atrocious conduct” and questioned if the police action reflected the government’s media policy.

The SLWJA alleged that the assault was part of a broader pattern of repression, linking it to restrictive laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Online Safety Act.

Marathon glory for visually impaired infantryman

Infantryman R.W.V. Piyatissa being feted by Army Commander Lasantha Rodrigo

Army Commander Lieutenant General Lasantha Rodrigo this week commended infantryman R.W.V. Piyatissa, who excelled at the Visually Impaired Marathon held in Kasumigaura, Japan, recently.

Infantryman Piyatissa lost his eyesight during an LTTE attack while taking part in operations in the Oddusudan area.

Mayor defends tree chop

The tree that came under the CMC axe

Colombo Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazar has been drawn into a controversy over the cutting of a giant tree on Dharmapala Mawatha in Colombo.

Many took to social media to criticise the cutting of the tree which provided much shelter to the area. She, however, defended the move, saying the roots of the tree had destroyed the foundations of buildings in the vicinity, wastewater and other underground amenities, and there was no option left but to cut the tree.

Rajapkasa a force to be reckoned with

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) members formally began work after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year at the party head office at Nelum Mawatha in Battaramulla on Monday. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his son, SLPP National Organiser Namal Rajapaksa, were among the party hierarchy in attendance.

When reporters who were covering the event asked the former president as to what plans his party had in the new year, he had an enthusiastic response. “We have a grand plan to obtain power,” the elder Rajapaksa said, without elaborating. He said the SLPP was “ready” for the change that was coming.

When asked what the SLPP planned to do to commemorate May Day, Rajapaksa Sr pointed out that this year’s May Day happened to fall on the same day as Vesak Full Moon Poya Day. “We won’t carry out any May Day-related activities on Poya Day. Instead, we will engage in religious activities,” he said, adding that he himself planned to observe sil on the day.

The government, meanwhile, announced that Vesak will be commemorated on May 31, a poya. While some may dismiss Mr Rajapaksa’s claim as just an attempt to energise the SLPP’s base, if recent political history has shown anything, it is that one can never count out the Rajapaksas.

Several politicians attend walkers’ Avurudu

Walkers celebrate Avurudu

The Independence Walkers Society, an ad hoc group comprising regular walkers at Independence Square, held its annual Avurudu celebrations recently, with several politicians, including former President Maithripala Sirisena, Mano Ganeshan, Mahinda Amaraweera and Lasantha Alagiyawanna, as well as several businessmen in attendance.

Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath was the chief guest. The group holds cross-cultural/religious celebrations at Independence Square regularly.

The Square’s bikers’ path and the walking lanes were inaugurated in 2011 after the area was developed under the supervision of the then Defence and Urban Development Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It has become a popular area of recreation since then.