Events from the year 2013 in Sri Lanka.
Incumbents President – Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister – D. M. Jayaratne Chief Justice – Shirani Bandaranayake (until 13 January); Mohan Peiris (from 15 January)
Governors Central Province – Tikiri Kobbekaduwa Eastern Province – Mohan Wijewickrama North Central Province – Karunarathna Divulgane Northern Province – G. A. Chandrasiri North Western Province – Tissa Balalla Sabaragamuwa Province – W. J. M. Lokubandara Southern Province – Kumari Balasuriya Uva Province – Nanda Mathew Western Province – Alavi Moulana
Chief Ministers Central Province – Sarath Ekanayake Eastern Province – M. N. Abdul Majeed North Central Province – S. M. Ranjith Northern Province – C. V. Vigneswaran (starting 7 October) North Western Province – Athula Wijesinghe (until 3 October); Dayasiri Jayasekara (starting 3 October) Sabaragamuwa Province – Maheepala Herath Southern Province – Shan Wijayalal De Silva Uva Province – Shasheendra Rajapaksa Western Province – Prasanna Ranatunga
Events January to March
1 January – Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: Supreme Court rules that the Parliamentary Select Committee had no power to investigate allegations against the chief justice and the impeachment was therefore unconstitutional. 7 January Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: Court of Appeal quashes the Parliamentary Select Committee's findings. Bodu Bala Sena storm Sri Lanka Law College in Hultsdorf, Colombo, alleging that exam results were being distorted in favour of Muslim students. 8 January – Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: The amended Divi Neguma Bill is passed by Parliament with the required two-thirds majority. 10 January – Nagesh Pratheepan and two other Uthayan distributors are attacked and newspapers torched by four men on two motorbikes in the Valvettithurai area. 11 January – Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: Parliament votes by 155 to 49 to impeach Bandaranayake. 13 January – Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: President Mahinda Rajapaksa ratifies the impeachment motion and removes Bandaranayake from office. 15 January – Impeachment of Shirani Bandaranayake: Attorney General Mohan Peiris sworn in as new chief justice. 21 January – Bodu Bala Sena storm the Cinnamon Bay Hotel in Moragalla, Beruwala, alleging that the premises contained a "Buddha bar". 23 January – A 47-year-old woman is gang raped by four auto rickshaw drivers at Wijerama Temple Mawatha, Nugegoda. 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. 15 February – The Sunday Leader journalist Faraz Shauketaly shot at his home in Mount Lavinia. 17 February – Bodu Bala Sena hold a meeting in Maharagama, Colombo which is attended by around 16,000 people including 1,300 monks. 15 March – British tourist Antony Ratcliffe is refused entry into the country at Bandaranaike International Airport because he had a "disrespectful" tattoo of Buddha on his arm. 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. 21 March – The United Nations Human Rights Council votes by 25 to 13 to pass resolution 22/1 on Sri Lanka despite opposition from the Sri Lankan government. 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. 25 March Nationwide protest by Muslims against the anti-Muslim campaigns being carried out by the Bodu Bala Sena and Jathika Hela Urumaya. Hartal was observed in the Eastern Province against the Bodu Bala Sena's anti-Muslim stance. 26 March – The BBC suspends broadcasting via the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation after the SLBC jammed the broadcast on 16,17,18 and 25 March. 28 March – The Muslim owned Fashion Bug clothes shop in Pepiliyana, Colombo District is attacked by a mob led by Buddhist monks.
April to June
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. 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. 20 April – New electricity tariffs come into force which will see some consumers bills increasing by 127%. 24 April – The government forcibly acquire of land in northern Valikamam for a military cantonment, claiming none of owners could be traced. 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. 12 May – Cyclone Mahasen causes floods and landslides in northern Sri Lanka, killing seven and displacing 3,881. 22 May – Mohamed Shiyam murder: Footwear businessman Mohammed Muzamdeen Mohammed Shiyam goes missing after dining with friend Mohammed Fouzdeen in a suburb of Colombo. 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. Mohamed Shiyam murder: Body of Mohamed Shiyam found in Dompe. Gampaha District. 25 May – Buddhist monk Bowatte Indrasara dies in Colombo National Hospital. 4 June 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. Ajith Mannapperuma is sworn as a Member of Parliament, replacing Jayalath Jayawardena. 8 June – More than 40 fishermen are killed by monsoon storms off the south west coast of Sri Lanka. 10 June – Mohamed Shiyam murder: DIG Vaas Gunawardena arrested in connection with murder. 11 June – Mohamed Shiyam murder: Colombo Magistrate's Court allow the Criminal Investigation Department to detain DIG Vaas Gunawardena for 90 days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
July to September 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". 5 July Trincomalee massacre of students: 12 Special Task Force personnel are arrested in connection with the killing of five students in January 2006. 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. Provincial council election: President Mahinda Rajapaksa issues a proclamation ordering the Election Commissioner to conduct elections for the Northern Provincial Council. Provincial council election: Central Provincial Council and North Western Provincial Council dissolved by their governors. 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. 12 July – The Flying Fish film is banned for insulting the armed forces. 15 July – Noori violence: 19 suspects including Anil Champika Wijesinghe (alias Atha Kota) are remanded till 24 July over the killing of Nihal Perera. 17 July – Noori violence: Entire Deraniyagala police transferred to other stations. 24 July – Provincial council election: United National Party MP Dayasiri Jayasekara resigns from Parliament to contest the provincial council election as the United People's Freedom Alliance's chief ministerial candidate in the North Western Province. 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. 31 July – Noori violence: 21 suspects are remanded till 5 August over the killing of Nihal Perera. 1 August – Three people are killed after the Army opens fire on a group of people protesting against contaminated water in Weliweriya, Gampaha District. 5 August – Noori violence: 22 suspects are remanded till 19 August over the killing of Nihal Perera. 8 August – Nilantha Bandara is sworn as a Member of Parliament, replacing Dayasiri Jayasekara. 10 August – A mosque in Grandpass, Colombo is attacked a mob of Buddhists. 24 August – Five men attack and rob the home of The Sunday Leader journalist Mandana Ismail Abeywickrema in Bambalapitiya, Colombo. 25 August – United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay arrives in Sri Lanka for a week-long fact finding mission which will include visiting the former war ravaged areas in the north and east. 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. 30 August – Customs officials in Colombo seize 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. It is later revealed that the shipment had a letter from Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne's office requesting a waiver of import duties. 31 August – At the end of her visit to Sri Lanka United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay issues a statement highly critical of the government, saying that the country is heading in an "authoritarian direction". 2 September 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. 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. 6 September – Lasantha Wickrematunge murder: Mount Lavinia magistrate Rangajeeva Wimalasena acquits and releases army intelligence officer Kandegedera Priyawansa. 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. 14 September Haiti Sex abuse: An 18-year-old Haitian woman is raped by a Sri Lankan soldier, part of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, on Route National 2 near Léogâne. Rail services resume on the Northern Line between Omanthai and Kilinochchi after an interruption of 23 years due to the civil war. 16 September – Provincial council election: Tamil National Alliance activist Rasiah Kavithan is clubbed to death by United People's Freedom Alliance supporters in Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu District. 18 September – Hindu priest Thamodaran Pillai Manotharan is hacked to death at a temple in Aanbankulam, Kilinochchi District. 20 September – Provincial council election: A group of around 70 armed men in military uniform attack the home of Tamil National Alliance candidate Ananthi Sasitharan in Chulipuram, injuring some of her supporters and an election monitor. 21 September Provincial council election: A fake edition of the pro-Tamil National Alliance newspaper Uthayan appears, falsely claiming that the TNA was boycotting the election and that TNA candidate Ananthi Sasitharan had defected to the governing United People's Freedom Alliance.