Sri Lanka's navy Friday arrested 54 would-be illegal immigrants in the first major detection of boat people heading to Australia this year, an official said.

A fishing trawler was detected with the passengers, including 11 women and 13 children, off the island's north-eastern coast of Mullaittivu, navy spokesman Kosala Warnakulasuriya said.

Sri Lanka's Muslim legislators on Friday asked President Mahinda Rajapakse to protect their minority community from "Buddhist extremist elements" blamed for a recent spate of hate attacks.

The Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, an umbrella organisation of Muslim groups, said 16 out of the 18 Muslim parliamentarians had asked the president to intervene and halt the attacks.

Sri Lanka police Monday announced a new unit to investigate religious hate crimes after attacks by Buddhist monks on churches and mosques last year raised concerns about religious freedom.

Police Inspector-General N. K. Illangakoon said the new unit would swiftly investigate any complaint relating to "religious matters" on the majority Buddhist island amid rising tensions over the attacks.

Sri Lanka on Tuesday accused Canada of undermining the Commonwealth to score political points after it announced a suspension of funding while the island nation chairs the group.

Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said the halting of Canada's $US9 million annual contribution to the Commonwealth Secretariat was an attempt at political "manipulation" at the expense of the 53-member bloc.

Canada's government announced Monday the suspension of funding to the Commonwealth over rotating chair Sri Lanka's alleged rights abuses.

While Sri Lanka remains chair of the 53-member bloc, Canada's Can$10 million (US$9 million) annual contribution to the Commonwealth Secretariat will instead go for two years toward combating the practice of child, early and forced marriage.

Sri Lanka's military on Friday shot dead three men they believed were trying to revive the separatist Tamil Tiger movement five years after its defeat, a spokesman said.

Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said troops killed the three, including a man they identified as a local leader of the Tigers, as they tried to escape a military cordon in a jungle area of the former war zone to the south of Jaffna.

Sri Lankan police have arrested 60 people accused of trying to revive a separatist group behind a civil war that left tens of thousands dead, a spokesman said on Thursday.

The suspects, including 10 women, were detained in a crackdown over the past month and were being questioned about attempts to reorganize the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), police spokesman Ajith Rohana said.

India has asked Sri Lanka to grant limited autonomy to its ethnic Tamil minority and ensure "genuine reconciliation" five years after crushing Tamil guerrillas, New Delhi's top envoy said Friday.

Indian High Commissioner (ambassador) Y. K. Sinha said New Delhi had also urged Colombo to probe allegations that its troops killed thousands of Tamil civilians in the final months of fighting in 2009.

Sri Lanka's ruling party was headed for victory in local elections but with smaller than expected margins in a crucial mid-term test for President Mahinda Rajapakse, early results showed Sunday.

The president campaigned for polls held Saturday for southern and western provincial councils, both in the ethnic majority Sinhalese heartland, which account for more than a third of the total electorate.

Sri Lanka tried to claim a moral victory Friday and insisted it would push on with reconciliation efforts after being censured by the U.N.'s top rights body for failing to bring perpetrators of war crimes to justice.

The U.S.-initiated resolution was carried at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Thursday with 23 votes in favor and 12 against. Sri Lankan officials said the fact that another 12 nations abstained meant that a majority of the 47-member council did not support the censure move.