COLOMBO: Amid the mayhem and chaos in Sri Lanka, acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe instructed armed forces and police to bring the current situation under control.
“Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe says armed forces and police instructed to bring the current situation under control,” tweeted Daily Mirror.
As protests intensified in the Sri Lankan capital city of Colombo, protesters, who had gathered outside Sri Lanka PM’s office, have taken over his residence at Flower Road in Colombo.
Security personnel today resorted to tear-gas shelling to drive away protesters on the streets of Colombo.
These reports come as the embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, escaped to the Maldives after appointing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the interim President of Sri Lanka.
Wickremesinghe today declared an emergency and imposed a curfew in the western province of the country as protesters came prepared to face tear gas shelling by security forces deployed outside Wickremesinghe’s residence. Air patrolling also began around the PM’s residence.
The country’s opposition leader Sajith Premadasa said that the PM cannot exercise the powers of the President, and cannot declare a curfew or a state of emergency.
“PM becomes acting President only if the President appoints him as such, or if the office of President is vacant, or if the CJ in consultation with the Speaker forms the view that the President is unable to act,” Premadasa tweeted.
“In the absence of any of these, the PM cannot exercise the powers of President, and cannot declare curfew or a state of emergency,” he said in another tweet.
Military personnel used tear gas shells to disperse protesters who scaled the wall to enter the Sri Lankan PM’s residence in Colombo.
Sri Lankan authorities today confirmed that Gotabaya Rajapaksa had flown to the Maldives with his wife and two bodyguards after full approval of the country’s Defence Ministry. the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Gotabaya had landed at the Velana International Airport in Male on a Sri Lankan Air Force plane.
The crisis-hit island country’s Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that he is yet to receive a letter of resignation from Gotabaya. “We haven’t received President Gotabaya’s resignation yet, but we hope to get one in a day,” Abeywardena told ANI.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa (73) had gone into hiding after crowds of protesters stormed his residence on July 9 and he had announced that he will resign on July 13.
The country is facing a severe shortage of fuel and other essential supplies and is in the throes of its worst economic crisis with soaring inflation. (ANI)