Sri Lanka Affairs

[Serendipity]

Sri Lanka also provided safe haven to a second Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, and evacuated its 219 crew a day after the Dena was torpedoed.

The ship was taken to Trincomalee on Sri Lanka’s northeast coast after reporting engine problems.

India, meanwhile, said Saturday it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on “humane” grounds after it too reported operational problems.

The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last Saturday.

“I think it was the humane thing to do and I think we were guided by that principle,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishkar said.

The Lavan docked in the southwest Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.

“A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility,” said Jaishkar.

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said this week that Colombo would follow the Hague Convention, which requires a neutral state to hold combatants of a warring state until hostilities end.

A senior administration official said Colombo was in talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross to deal with the survivors of the torpedoed ship.

Mad respect for the Sri lankans

 

[ghazi52]

Sri Lanka court orders 84 Iranian sailors' bodies be handed to Iran embassy, local media says​

Warship, IRIS Dena, was hit by torpedo from US submarine while it was returning from naval exercise organised by India

Reuters
March 11, 2026

Sri Lanka Navy personnel assist Iranian sailors during a rescue operation after responding to a distress call from their vessel, the Iranian military ship, IRIS Dena, while at sea within Sri Lanka’s maritime search and rescue region, in Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka, March 4, 2026. Sri Lanka Navy/Handout via REUTERS

A Sri Lankan court has ordered that the bodies of 84 sailors killed in an attack on an Iranian warship off the island nation's coast last week be handed over to the embassy ‌of Iran, local media reported on Wednesday.

The warship, IRIS Dena, was hit by a torpedo from a US submarine while it was returning from a naval exercise organised by India, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran that has wreaked havoc on global markets, sent oil prices soaring, and disrupted trade and travel.

The court order was ⁠issued on Wednesday following a request from the Galle Harbour Police in the southern port city of Galle, the media reports said. The bodies are currently at the morgue in Galle's National Hospital.

 

[ghazi52]

Sri Lanka has also granted 30-day entry visas to 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel who were taken in by the South Asian country after the vessel experienced engine problems in the same region, Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekera told Reuters.

The Sri Lankan foreign ministry is in touch with the Iranian embassy in Colombo about the ‌crew ⁠and the mission is in turn consulting Tehran, Jayasekara said. "We are expecting a response from Tehran over the next few days," he said. A spokesperson for Sri Lanka's cabinet said on Tuesday that the second vessel, IRIS Booshehr, was nine nautical miles from the coast and would eventually be ⁠moved.

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake last week said the ship would be moved to the Trincomalee harbour on the east coast. Reuters reported that Washington was pressing Colombo to not repatriate the survivors from ⁠the two Iranian vessels.

 

[ghazi52]

Thirty-two people survived the attack on IRIS Dena. Both Washington and Tehran are key trade partners for Sri Lanka. The US accounts for about 40% of ⁠its apparel exports and Iran is one of its main tea buyers.

A third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan with 183 crew members, is docked in the southern Indian port of Kochi.

 

[ghazi52]

Sri Lanka to repatriate remains of 84 Iranians killed in US attack​

Washington urges Colombo not to repatriate survivors hit by US submarine in March 4

Reuters
March 13, 2026

Trucks carry bodies of Iranian sailors, who died following a submarine attack on Iranian military ship, IRIS Dena, off the coast of Sri Lanka, to an airport, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Galle, Sri Lanka, March 13, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS

The bodies of 84 Iranian sailors killed in a US submarine attack on a warship off Sri Lanka’s coast last week will be repatriated, a source in the Iranian embassy in Colombo and Sri Lankan media reported on Friday.

Iranian warship IRIS Dena was struck by a torpedo from a US submarine on March 4 while it was returning from a naval exercise in India, amid the US-Israeli war on Iran that has disrupted markets and global trade.

A Sri Lankan court this week ordered that the bodies of the sailors killed in the attack, currently stored in a morgue at the National Hospital in the southern port city of Galle, be handed over to the Iranian embassy.

The bodies will be repatriated on Friday by a special flight departing from Mattala International Airport in southern Sri Lanka, local media reported, citing the Sri Lankan defence ministry.

“Arrangements are being made to transport the bodies of the Iranian crew from the hospital to the Mattala airport,” a source in the Iranian embassy in Colombo told Reuters, without elaborating on when the flight would depart.

 

[ghazi52]

240 Iranian crew remain in Srilanka

Sri Lanka’s health, foreign and defence ministries did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. The Sri Lankan navy said it was not involved in the transport and repatriation efforts.

Sri Lanka has also granted 30-day entry visas to 208 crew members from a second Iranian ship, IRIS Booshehr, who were taken in after the vessel experienced engine problems in the same region.

The country’s foreign ministry is in touch with the Iranian embassy in Colombo about the crew, which in turn is consulting Tehran, the defence ministry previously said.

Reuters reported last week that Washington was pressing Colombo not to repatriate the survivors from the two vessels.

Thirty-two people survived the attack on IRIS Dena.

Both Washington and Tehran are key trade partners for Sri Lanka. The United States accounts for about 40% of the country’s apparel exports, while Iran is one of its main tea buyers.

 

[ghazi52]

Sri Lanka repatriates remains of 84 Iranian sailors​

Agencies
March 14, 2026




A Sri Lanka Navy vessel approaches an Iranian vessel during a rescue operation, a day after the crew of a distressed Iranian military ship, IRIS Dena were assisted in waters south of Sri Lanka, off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka March 5, 2026. —Sri Lanka Navy/Handout via Reuters/File Photo

• Court orders prompt handover of bodies to Iranian embassy following autopsies in Galle
• Chartered flight transports sealed boxes from Mattala airport to Iran
• Colombo still holds over 250 crewmen from second ship; faces Washington’s pressure to halt repatriation

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Friday repatriated the remains of 84 Iranian sailors killed when their warship was sunk by a US submarine nine days earlier, an attack that extended the raging Middle East conflict to the Indian Ocean, officials said.

The seamen were killed when the frigate IRIS Dena was torpedoed on March 4 just off Sri Lanka’s coast. The incident occurred while the vessel was returning from a naval exercise in India amid a wider US-Israeli war on Iran.

An Iranian-chartered Airbus A340 transported the bodies from Mattala International Airport in the island’s south, according to an airport official who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. The flight’s destination was not disclosed. “The departure was delayed because 84 sealed boxes had to be loaded,” the official said.

The repatriation follows a Sri Lankan court order this week to hand over the bodies, which had been stored in a morgue at the National Hospital in the southern port city of Galle, to the Iranian embassy in Colombo.

“All domestic procedures have been completed, and the Iranians are bringing a chartered aircraft for the repatriation,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Thushara Rodrigo said.

 

[ghazi52]

The 32 sailors who survived the attack on the Dena will remain in Sri Lanka for the time being, the Foreign Ministry confirmed. Of those rescued, 22 have been discharged from the hospital and are being held at an air force base.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had been contacted regarding the injured sailors but was not involved in the repatriation of the bodies, he added.

Sri Lanka is currently hosting 251 Iranian sailors. In addition to the Dena survivors, 219 crew members from a second Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, were granted safe harbour after their vessel was allowed into Sri Lankan waters a day after the sinking. The Bushehr reportedly experienced engine problems in the same region.

Its crew members are being held at a navy camp just north of Colombo while their ship has been taken over by Sri Lanka’s navy, which is attempting to repair one of its two malfunctioning engines.

 

[ghazi52]

Sri Lanka declares Wednesdays off as Asian countries try to conserve fuel​

Kelly Ngand
BBC Sinhala,Colombo

Snaking queues are seen around petrol stations in Sri Lanka as motorists scramble for fuel

Sri Lanka has declared every Wednesday a holiday for public institutions to conserve fuel as the island nation grapples with possible shortages in the wake of the US and Israel's war with Iran.

"We must prepare for the worst, but hope for the best," President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said at an emergency meeting with senior officials on Monday.

This is the latest in a series of belt-tightening measures undertaken by Asian countries since the war choked off the Strait of Hormuz, which used to carry millions of barrels of oil from the Gulf into the region.

Nearly 90% of all the oil and gas flowing through the strait last year was bound for Asia, which is the world's largest oil-importing region.

 

[ghazi52]

What else is Sri Lanka doing?

Sri Lanka's new four-day week will also apply to schools and universities, but it will not affect state institutions providing essential services, such as the health and immigration authorities, officials say.

Authorities picked Wednesday instead of Friday as the additional off day so that government offices would not be closed for three days in a row, they added.

Motorists are also now required to register for a National Fuel Pass which rations the amount of fuel that people can buy.

This has sparked some unhappiness among some Sri Lankan who feel that the fuel quotas - 15 litres for private cars and five litres for motorcycles - are too low.

The rationing mechanism was first implemented in 2022 during the country's worst economic crisis which saw it run out of foreign reserves and unable to import essential items and buy enough fuel.

 

[ghazi52]

Sri Lanka asks electric vehicle owners to unplug at night​

AFP
March 18, 2026



Fuel tankers, along with other vehicles, enter Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 18, 2026. — AFP

Sri Lanka has urged electric vehicle owners to stop charging their cars at night, saying the surge in demand is forcing the country to burn more coal and diesel to keep the power grid running.

In an address to the nation, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said electric cars were adding an extra 300 megawatts of demand at night, straining the grid.

“Electric car owners charge their vehicles when they return from work. This is placing an additional burden on the grid, and we are compelled to operate all our generators to meet this surge,” he said on Tuesday night.

Much of the electricity at night is generated by a 900-megawatt coal power station and another 1,000 megawatts from diesel — a far cry from the clean-green image EVs might hope to project.

Sri Lanka, still waiting for large-scale battery storage, currently has no way to bottle its abundant daytime solar power.

“Charge your car during the day when we have excess electricity from solar,” Dissanayake said, adding that authorities plan to introduce tariffs shortly to curb night-time charging.

The South Asian country has seen a surge in electric cars since a five-year ban on vehicle imports was lifted in February last year.

More than 10 per cent of all vehicles imported since then have been fully electric.

Faced with an energy crisis following the war in the Middle East, Sri Lanka has begun rationing fuel. It has also imposed a four-day working week starting Wednesday in a bid to conserve fuel.

Dissanayake said the country was unable to secure two shipments of 90,000 tonnes of crude oil due to the Middle East war.

However, he said Colombo was in talks with “friendly states” including neighbouring India and Russia to purchase refined products.

On Wednesday, streets were relatively free of traffic, with train and bus stations empty, as schools, government offices and banks closed in response to the government’s energy-saving drive.

 

[ghazi52]

Sri Lanka raises fuel prices by 25pc as US-Israel war on Iran bites​

AFP
March 22, 2026



Vehicles queue to buy petrol at a fuel station, due to concerns over fuel supply amid the US-Israel war on Iran, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 16, 2026. — Reuters

Sri Lanka raised fuel prices by 25 per cent on Sunday, the second increase in two weeks, as the country prepared for more impact from the war in the Middle East.

Regular petrol was increased to 398 rupees ($1.30) per litre, up from 317 rupees, while diesel, the fuel commonly used for public transport, rose by 79 rupees to 382.

Last week, the government ordered an eight per cent increase in retail fuel prices and introduced rationing to limit consumption.

“We hope to achieve a 15 to 20pc reduction in fuel consumption with the latest increase,” an official at the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation said.

He said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told them last week that the country must prepare for a prolonged conflict in the Middle East that could affect the island’s energy supplies.

The president ordered a four-day working week from last Wednesday and asked employers to reintroduce work-from-home arrangements where possible.

 

[ghazi52]

Sri Lanka imports all of its oil and also buys coal for electricity generation.

Sri Lanka buys refined petroleum products from Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea, while crude oil for its Iran-built refinery is sourced from the Middle East.

The government has warned that the fighting in the Middle East, and a prolonged war, could seriously undermine its efforts to emerge from the economic meltdown of 2022.

Sri Lanka defaulted on its $46 billion foreign debt in 2022 after the country ran out of foreign exchange. Since then, Colombo has secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.s

 

[ghazi52]

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[Nimble]

Srilanka not only helped in rescuing Iranian sailors but just 4 days back it denied permission to 2 American super hornets to land in Srilanka.... they wanted to land for refueling.... both Srilanka and India has helped Iran and hence Iran is letting our ships pass through hormuz....