News
Gaza war: massacre of over 100 civilians must be condemned – former Lankan Ambassador
Sri Lanka’s former Ambassador to Iran and ex-lawmaker M.M. Zuhair said that Saturday’s Israeli massacre of over 100 Palestinian civilians in a school sheltering them and a Mosque with the displaced at prayers in the same compound, must stand condemned as an inhuman atrocity on the helpless, by an American backed regime in the Middle East. Israel gave no advanced warning of the attack!
The following is the text of statement issued by the former Senior State Counsel: “CNN reported that “all of these people killed were civilians, unarmed children, the elderly and women” quoting Fares Afana, Director of Emergency Services in Northern Gaza. Though the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed Hamas fighters were the target, CNN asked the IDF for evidence and the response was ‘intelligence reports’.
Israel had sufficient expertise- from the well -known July 1976 Entebbe airport rescue mission of 104 Israelis hijacked in a flight from Paris to the present July 2024 killing of Ismail Haniyah in Tehran- to target the Hamas fighters if they were in the school or the Mosque, without having to kill a hundred innocent displaced civilians!
‘The Island’ is one of the few national dailies that had been giving due coverage to the Israeli war on Gaza that had seen the killing of an average of 140 Palestinians every single day during the past ten months of the war and the near total destruction of Palestine as no longer a viable State for human existence.
On 6th November 2023, less than a month after the 7th October war, The Island carried my statement that “..Israel is destroying the two-State solution” in page one of its edition. The October 6th Hamas attack appeared as a welcome excuse for Israel to destroy Palestine and finish off any possible two State solution that was hitherto ‘dangled as a carrot’ before the Arabs.
On 18th July 2024, the Israeli parliament passed a resolution overwhelmingly rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian State with 68 votes rejecting Palestinian statehood and 9 voting for!
Clearly Israel is destabilising the Arab world in the Middle East by destroying not only the two State solution but by destroying Palestine and its helpless people. With the UN having created the problem engineered by Western powers in 1948, it has now and over the past 76 years demonstrated its helplessness to restore Palestine to the Palestinians or to achieve even the alternative offer of a two State solution which presently stands buried with the nearly 42,000 Palestinians killed during the past ten months alone.
With Israel reportedly armed with over 200 nuclear warheads, Iran or other ME countries are unlikely to go for a full- fledged war with Israel, though Iran will seek counter justice for the killing of Palestinian leader and Hamas peace negotiator Ismail Haniyah in Iran’s capital Tehran on 31st July!
Israel has left only one solution in the hands of Hamas as it knows Hamas can never be destroyed and that solution is to push Hamas to go for Super Nuclear War Heads as an excuse for Israel to nuke most of the Middle East. The West and the UN Security Council together will be responsible for the millions who will die.”
The government has chosen not to respond to questions raised by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) regarding the detention of retired Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay in connection with the ongoing investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested the ex-official in late February this year. The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers have jointly raised the issue on 20 July, 2026.
Drawing attention of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to what they called alleged arbitrary detention of Sallay, former Director General of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and former Director of Military Intelligence (DMI), under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), as well as allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment while in custody, resulting in the grave deterioration of his health, and imminent risks of retaliation through further torture and ill-treatment resulting in irreparable harm, should he be released from hospital and returned to custody, the UN sought the government explanation with a 60-day period.
The UN has stated: “This communication, and any response received from your Excellency’s Government, will be made public via the communications reporting website at the 60 days mark. Should your Excellency’s Government respond within 60 days, both the communication and the response, may be published before the 60 days mark. The communications and responses
will also be made available in the subsequent periodic report to be presented to the Human Rights Council.”
In the absence of the government’s response, the UN posted the letter, dated 20 July, 2026, addressed to President Dissanayake. The full letter can be accessed https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=31125
News
Section of wartime KKS High Security Zone vacated to facilitate economic development in the area
The Army, last week, vacated an area, within the wartime high security zone in the Jaffna peninsula. The Defence Ministry said that an extent of 187.56 acres of land, belonging to the Cement Corporation in Kankesanthurai, Jaffna, has been released by the military. The released land, located in Grama Niladhari Division J/233, Kankesanthurai West, within the Valikamam North (Tellippalai) Divisional Secretariat Division, had been utilised by the Sri Lanka Army since the middle of 1997.
The release of the 187.56-acre extent forms part of the initiative to make State land available for the proposed investment zone in Kankesanthurai, thereby facilitating future investment and economic development in the area.
A complaint has been lodged with the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau against the Government Printer and the Secretary to the Ministry of Media regarding the online release of falsified documents bearing a forged Speaker’s certificate.
Attorney-at-Law Aruna Laksiri has lodged a complaint with the Colombo Fraud Investigation Bureau requesting legal action against the Government Printer of the Department of Government Printing (No. 118, Dr. Danister de Silva Mawatha, Colombo 08), Prasanna Jayaratne, and the Secretary to the Ministry of Mass Media (Asidisi Medura, 163, Kirulapone Mawatha, Polhengoda, Colombo 05), Dr. Anil Jasinghe.
The complaint alleges the commission of offences by forging and uploading falsified documents online using a forged Speaker’s certification, failure to perform statutory duties, and misappropriation of public property.
The complaint states that a copy of the English translation of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was downloaded and printed from the official website of the Government Printing Department (www.documents.gov.lk), which operates under the Ministry of Mass Media. On its outer cover and on page 1, the text “certified on 25th of September, 2026” is inscribed inside brackets.
The complaint pointed out that the Speaker has certified an English translation. Under Articles 23, 79, 83, and 80 of the Constitution, Parliament enacts laws and the Speaker certifies bills strictly in the Sinhala and Tamil languages; under the Constitution, therefore the Speaker cannot apply such certification to an English translation.
Showers or thundershowers will occur at several places in the most part of the island after 1.00 p.m
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Geneva takes up Sallay’s case and govt. ignores opportunity to answer accusations
Section of wartime KKS High Security Zone vacated to facilitate economic development in the area
Lawyer lodges complaint against Govt. Printer, Media Ministry Secy.
Sri Lankan troops in joint anti-terrorist exercise in Russia
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