10 January – Nagesh Pratheepan and two other Uthayan distributors are attacked and newspapers torched by four men on two motorbikes in the Valvettithurai area.[8][9]
21 January – Bodu Bala Sena storm the Cinnamon Bay Hotel in Moragalla, Beruwala, alleging that the premises contained a "Buddha bar".[15][16]
23 January – A 47-year-old woman is gang raped by four auto rickshaw drivers at Wijerama Temple Mawatha, Nugegoda.[17][18]
28 January – President Mahinda Rajapaksa carries out a cabinet re-shuffle, appointing some new ministers and deputy ministers - 96 United People's Freedom Alliance MPs were now part of the government.[19][20][21]
17 March – Bodu Bala Sena hold a rally in Kandy at which it announced that it would work to remove a 10th-century mosque at the Kuragala Buddhist monastery complex in Ratnapura District.[27][28]
24 March – Bodu Bala Sena hold a rally in Panadura at which it called on the country to rally against Christian and Muslim extremists, insisting Sri Lanka was a Sinhala Buddhist country, not a multiracial or multi-religious country.[32]
3 April – The Uthayan newspaper's office in Kilinochchi were attacked by a group of six masked Sinhala speaking men, injuring five employees, two seriously, and damaging equipment and vehicles.[39][40][41][42][43]
13 April – Three men came to the Uthayan newspaper's office in Jaffna and threatened security guards before damaging equipment and setting the printing press ablaze.[44][45][46]
20 April – New electricity tariffs come into force which will see some consumers bills increasing by 127%.[47][48][49]
24 April – The government forcibly acquire 2,578 hectares (6,370 acres; 9.95 sq mi) of land in northern Valikamam for a military cantonment, claiming none of owners could be traced.[50][51][52][53]
5 May – President Mahinda Rajapaksa's son Rohitha Rajapaksa is alleged to have assaulted referee Dimitri Gunasekera during an Inter-Club Rugby Sevens Championship match at Havelock Park between Navy SC and Police SC A.[54][55][56]
12 May – Cyclone Mahasen causes floods and landslides in northern Sri Lanka, killing seven and displacing 3,881.[57][58][59]
22 May – Mohamed Shiyam murder: Footwear businessman Mohammed Muzamdeen Mohammed Shiyam goes missing after dining with friend Mohammed Fouzdeen in a suburb of Colombo.[60]
24 May
Buddhist monk Bowatte Indrasara, a Sinhala Ravaya activist, self-immolates outside the Temple of the Tooth in protest against the slaughter of cattle and conversion of Buddhists.[61][62]
Rajapaksha Mudiyansalage Premadasa, the Vedda chief folk priest at the Siva temple at Valli Kukai cave in Chella Kathirkamam, is stabbed to death in Kataragama.[67][68]
2 July – The 1 July issue of Time magazine, whose cover features a picture of Burmese extremist monk Ashin Wirathu with the headline "The Face of Buddhist Terror", is banned in Sri Lanka because it "could hurt the religious sentiments of the people".[77][78][79]
Noori violence: Nihal Perera, the Superintendent of the Noori Tea Estate in Deraniyagala, is hacked to death by a group of 15 men including a local politician.[83][84][85]
9 July – Noori violence: Nine suspects including Anil Champika Wijesinghe (alias Atha Kota), the former United People's Freedom Alliance chairman of Deraniyagala Pradeshiya Sabha, are remanded till 15 July over the killing of Nihal Perera.[89]
15 July – Noori violence: 19 suspects including Anil Champika Wijesinghe (alias Atha Kota) are remanded till 24 July over the killing of Nihal Perera.[92][93]
17 July – Noori violence: Entire Deraniyagala police transferred to other stations.[94]
29 July – Malaka Silva, son of government minister Mervyn Silva, is assaulted by a group men in the car park of the Odel store in Town Hall, Colombo.[97][98][99]
31 July – Noori violence: 21 suspects are remanded till 5 August over the killing of Nihal Perera.[100]
1 August – Three people are killed after the Army opens fire on a group of people protesting against contaminated water in Weliweriya, Gampaha District.[101][102][103]
5 August – Noori violence: 22 suspects are remanded till 19 August over the killing of Nihal Perera.[104]
26 August – Responsibility for the Sri Lanka Police Service passes from the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development to the newly created Ministry of Law and Order, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Minister of Law and Order and Major General Nanda Mallawarachchi as the ministry's secretary.[115][116]
30 August – Customs officials in Colombo seize 131.1488 kilograms (289.134 lb) of pure heroin, worth about US$19 million, in shipment from Karachi, Pakistan, in what is believed to the largest seizure of heroin in South Asia.[117][118][119] It is later revealed that the shipment had a letter from Prime MinisterD. M. Jayaratne's office requesting a waiver of import duties.[120][121]
Mahaguruge Francis Nelson, Tamil political prisoner in Magazine Prison and a close relative of senior Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam commander Paul Raj, is found dead.[126][127]
BBC Tamil service journalist Ponnaiah Manikavasagam is interrogated by the Terrorism Investigation Department without the presence of a lawyer about phone conversations he had with two Tamil prisoners in Magazine Prison.[128][129]
6 September – Lasantha Wickrematunge murder: Mount Lavinia magistrate Rangajeeva Wimalasena acquits and releases army intelligence officer Kandegedera Priyawansa.[130][131][132]
13 September – Seventy-eight-year-old Vairamuttu Thirunavukkarasu is killed by a train on a trial run as he crossed the railway line on a bicycle at an unprotected crossing at the 155th Mile Post near Kilinochchi.[133][134]
14 October – Vavuniya prison riot: The Supreme Court dismisses a fundamental rights case brought by the parents of Ganesan Nimalaruban who died in the riots.[174][175]
17 October – Tangalle murder and gang rape: Six suspects (United People's Freedom Alliance chairman of Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Sampath Chandra Pushpa Vidanapathirana, B. A. Lahiru Kelum, Saman Deshapriya, W. Preneeth Chaturanga, M. Sarath Herath, Sugan, S. P. Preneeth Chaturanga, H. G. Nuwan Chinthaka Herath and E. P. Nadeera Shamel) are charged with murder, gang rape and possession of unlawful weapons.[176][177][178]
18 October – The badly decomposed body of Markandu Yogaranym, a mentally handicapped woman who had been raped and murdered, is found in the grounds of Nachiyar Hindu Temple, Jaffna.[179][180]
26 October – Three people, including an infant, are killed when a van crashes into a stationary lorry at Kaluwaragaswewa on the Puttalam-Anuradhapura road.[181][182]
29 October – The body of Amirthalingam Maithili is found inside a well in Puttur.[185][186]
30 October – Immigration and defence officials raid a media workshop at the Hotel Galadari, Colombo organised by the Free Media Movement, detaining the International Federation of Journalists Asia-Pacific Director Jacqui Park and Asia-Pacific Deputy Director Jane Worthington.[187][188]
1 November – Jacqui Park and Jane Worthington of the International Federation of Journalists are deported to Australia after two days of "extensive interrogation" by defence and immigration officials.[192][193]
4 November
Twelve people are killed and scores injured when a bus travelling from Bandarawela to Poonagala skids off the road at Mapitiya and falls into a 300 feet precipice.[194][195]
10 November – Immigration officials raid a press conference in Colombo organised by the Tamil National Alliance, detaining New Zealand Green Party MP Jan Logie and Australian Green senator Lee Rhiannon and confiscating their passports.[198][199] The pair are questioned for hours before being allowed to leave the country.[200][201]
9 December – Prime MinisterD. M. Jayaratne's Coordinating Secretary Keerthi Sri Weerasinghe resigns over the heroin letter affair but denies any involvement in heroin smuggling.[232][233]
10 December
The second session of the Permanent People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka in Bremen finds Sri Lanka guilty of genocide.[234][235]
12 December – The European Parliament passes a resolution on Sri Lanka which, amongst other things, urges the Sri Lankan government to fully implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and initiate an independent and credible investigation into alleged wartime violations by March 2014.[238][239][240]
18 December – Deputy Minister of Economic Development Susantha Punchinilame is cleared of the murder of MP Nalanda Ellawala and police constable T. M. Jayasena on 11 February 1997 in Kuruwita.[243][244]
27 December – Three people are killed near Waduruwa after they jumped off a train on fire and were hit by another train travelling in the opposite direction.[248][249]
