Written by Sharmita Kar | Edited by Aniruddha Dhar
Sri Lanka on Tuesday handed over emergency powers to its military and police allowing the forces to detain people without warrants, a day after the clashes took a grim turn, killing seven people and injuring more than 200. The violence prompted Mahinda Rajapaksa – the elder brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa – to resign as prime minister on Monday and subsequently take refuge at a naval base.
Here are the latest developments on the Sri Lankan crisis:
- President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has extended the national curfew until Wednesday morning as protests over economic and political crises continue to grow.
- With emergency powers given to the military, they can detain people for up to 24 hours before handing them to the police. Also, private property can be searched by force, including private vehicles, according to the government’s gazette notification.
- India has extended financial support worth over US$ 3.5 billion to the people of Sri Lanka for helping them overcome their current difficulties, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs, said in a statement.
- The island nation witnessed its bloodiest day in the ongoing anti-government protests with thousands of demonstrators defying the curfew to attack government figures, setting ablaze homes, vehicles, shops and businesses belonging to ruling party lawmakers and provincial politicians.
- Protesters even attempted to tear down the gates of Temple Trees, the two-storey colonial-era building that serves as the Lankan PM’s home in the heart of Colombo, where broken glass and discarded footwear littered the surrounding streets on Tuesday, after some of the night’s worst clashes.
- Protesters set on fire the ancestral home of the Rajapaksas, in the southern Hambantota district, along with dozens of other buildings belonging to his loyalists.
- Mahinda Rajapaksa, along with his wife and family, fled the residence and took shelter, reportedly at a naval base in Trincomalee in northeast Sri Lanka. Police fired tear gas and warning shots in the air in the early hours of Tuesday to hold back mobs as security forces moved them out of ‘Temple Trees’.
- Sri Lanka is reeling under its worst economic crisis since independence with crippling food and fuel shortages, soaring prices and power cuts affecting a large number of the citizens who have criticised the government’s handling of the situation.
- The recession is attributed to foreign exchange shortages caused by a fall in tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as reckless economic policies.
- Sri Lanka has a population of 22 million and is under a state of emergency for the second time this year. The nation became independent from British rule in 1948.
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