24 January – 31 are injured during riots at the Magazine Prison (near Welikada Prison), Colombo.[3][4][5]
31 January –Kahawatte murders: P. Nayana Nilmini and her daughter Kavindhya Chathurangi Sellahewa killed in their home in Kahawatta.[6][7]
21 February – Tangalle High Court sentences Buddhist monk Gomadiye Sarana and Makumburage Wijesiri to death for stabbing Makumburage Dharmadasa on 10 January 2000.[8][9]
24 February – A government report claims that 7,934 people (excluding security forces) were killed in the Northern Province during the final phase (January to May 2009) of the civil war, a departure from the government's previous claim of "zero civilian casualties".[10][11][12]
23 March – Government minister Mervyn Silva threatens to "break the limbs" of some journalists and human rights workers whom he labelled "traitors".[24][25][26]
Dimuthu Attygalle appears at a Front Line Socialist Party press conference in Madiwela, claiming she had been abducted and interrogated by the police.[34][35][36]
18 April – Easwarathasan Ketheeswaran, a refugee who had been sent back to Sri Lank from the UK, is killed at Iyankerni, Trincomalee.[39][40]
20 April – Around 2,000 Buddhist protesters, including monks, try to storm a mosque in Dambulla.[41][42][43][44]
22 April – Government orders the removal of the mosque in Dambulla.[45][46]
26 April – Muslims in eastern Sri Lanka strike over threats to a mosque in Dambulla.[47][48][49]
3 May
Canadian Anthonypillai Mahendrarajah (Andrew Mahendrarajah Antonipillai) is hacked to death in Kaagnchipuram Lane, Paranthan.[50][51]
Diamonds, gold rings and other jewellery worth millions of dollars stolen in Greece by Janaka Weerasinghe (alias Upul Ranga Perera) and shipped to Colombo is seized by Sri Lanka Customs.[52][53]
21 May – Former presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is released from prison after receiving a conditional pardon from his opponent President Mahinda Rajapaksa but is barred from contesting or voting at elections for seven years.[54][55][56]
30 May –Kahawatte murders: Sisters Hethuge Dayawathi and Hethuge Thilakwathi burnt to death in their house in Warapitiya, Kahawatta.[40][57]
6 June –Stuart Cosgrove, a senior executive at Channel 4, and his wife Shirani Sabaratnam are refused entry into Sri Lanka because Channel 4 "harmed Sri Lanka's reputation".[58][59]
7 June – Lalani Pushpa Kumari and her daughter Senara Nilmini are stabbed to death at their house in Weerahela, Tissamaharama.[40][60]
28 June – Vavuniya prison riot: Prisoners, protesting against the transfer of fellow inmate Saravanabhavan to Anuradhapura prison, take three prison guards hostage.[63][64]
29 June
Vavuniya prison riot: Special Task Force storm the prison and release the three hostages but 30 prisoners are injured.[65][66]
Police raid the offices of the Sri Lanka Mirror and Sri Lanka X News websites in Colombo for publishing anti-government material, arresting nine people and confiscating equipment.[67][68][69]
July to September
4 July – Vavuniya prison riot: Ganesan Nimalaruban (Nimalarooban), one of 28 prisoners who had been transferred to Mahara prison, dies at Colombo North Teaching Hospital.[70][71][72]
20 July – Lawyers boycott courts over threats by Government minister Risad Badhiutheen to kill Mannar magistrate Anthonypillai Judeson.[79][80][81]
5 August – 37 Chinese fishermen are arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy off eastern Sri Lanka for fishing illegally.[82][83][84]
7 August – The 37 Chinese fishermen arrested for fishing illegally are released.[85][86]
8 August – Vavuniya prison riot: Mariadas Navis Dilrukshan (Dilrukshan Muthurasa), who had been in a coma since the riot, dies at Ragama Hospital.[87][88]
19 August – The Kapilavastu relics arrive in Sri Lanka for a three-week exposition.[89][90]
20 August – Three French tourists are arrested in Galle for taking pictures of themselves with Buddha statues and pretending to kiss one of them.[91][92]
21 August – Three French tourists are given suspended six-month prison sentences for "wounding the religious feelings of Buddhists" by taking pictures of themselves with Buddha statues and pretending to kiss one of them.[93][94]
23 August – The government closes all universities in the country amidst a strike by lecturers.[95][96][97]
23 August – The abandoned MV Thermopylae Sierra sinks off the coast of Panadura, releasing a 10km long oil slick some of which washes ashore.[98][99][100]
27 August – Government minister Risad Badhiutheen appears before magistrate Ranga Dassanayake in Mannar, accused of threatening to kill magistrate Anthonypillai Judeson, and is released on bail.[101][102][103]
9 September – Army Major Chandana Pradeep Susena and a corporal are assaulted by Malaka Silva, son of government minister Mervyn Silva, and six others in the car park of the JAIC-Hilton Colombo hotel.[109][110][111]
18 September –Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: Supreme Court determines that the Divi Neguma Bill was in respect of matters set out in the provincial council list and therefore cannot become law unless it has been referred to every provincial council.[112][113][114]
14 October –Bodu Bala Sena storm a house in Batakettara, Homagama, Piliyandala where it alleged a Christian pastor called Dinesh and others from an evangelical group called The Name of Lord Jesus were trying to convert Sinhalese Buddhists.[131]
30 October –Cyclone Nilam causes severe rain and flooding in north eastern Sri Lanka, killing ten and displacing 4,000.[133][134][135]
31 October –Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: Supreme Court determines that clause 8(2) of the Divi Neguma Bill was unconstitutional and needed to be approved by a referendum; twelve other clauses were inconsistent with the constitution and needed to be passed by special majority (two-thirds) of Parliament; the governor of the Northern Province does not have the power to endorse the bill and therefore Parliament needed to pass the bill by special majority.[136][137][138][139][140]
8 December –Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: Parliamentary Select Committee's report is presented to Parliament - three of five charges against Bandaranayake had been proven and this was enough to remove her from office.[157][158][159]
Deaths
January
4 January – N. G. P. Panditharatne, politician.[160]
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