Sri Lanka: 1 MP dead, protesters killed, ministers' homes burned

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Just before dawn, Sri Lankan troops conducted an operation to rescue Mahinda Rajapaksa, the prime minister who resigned on Monday. The troops fired warning shots in the air to disperse crowds of anti-government protesters, who took their protests to his residency in the capital, Colombo. 

After pro-Rajapaksa protesters incited violence, eight people have been killed and over 200 were wounded. Though previous protests were run peacefully, after weeks of frustration as the economic crisis worsens, tensions have ramped up.

One MP, Amarakeerthi Athukorala, after killing two protesters, was found dead while trying to take refuge in a nearby building. 

Protesters, moreover, have set Mahinda's home on fire, in addition to other ministers. 

Sri Lanka. Protests against the economic crisis and the president turned into an uprising in Sri Lanka. The residence of the Prime Minister and many ministers and deputies were set on fire. pic.twitter.com/9fn9DepzFN

— 0V3RG4M3 (@AxlGuidato) May 11, 2022

Read more: Loyalists turn against Sri Lanka's president amid economic crisis

 

The Sri Lankan ministry of defense on Tuesday announced that its security forces had now “been ordered to shoot on sight anyone looting public property or causing harm to life”.

Protests continued as hundreds of anti-government protesters disobeyed the government's curfew by gathering outside the president's office. 

Mahinda Rajapaksa, the brother of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa who recently lost the parliament majority, resigned in an attempt to calm down the protests - however, his resignation did little among people who've been accusing Colombo of ruining the economy and bankrupting the country. 

“After a pre-dawn operation, the former PM and his family were evacuated to safety by the army,” said a security official. “At least 10 petrol bombs were thrown into the compound.”

Sri Lanka has been suffering its worst downturn since the island's independence in 1948. Weeks of power blackouts and critical shortages of food, pharmaceuticals, and fuel have brought the people to the streets.

All 24 ministers of Sri Lanka's cabinet resigned from their posts on April 3, while the President and his brother the Prime Minister stayed on, amid protests and clashes in the capital, Colombo.

As anger mounted in the South Asian nation, Sri Lanka instituted a social media blackout and curfew in order to quell protests to no avail. Last month, authorities arrested 644 people who violated the curfew. 

Sri Lanka has been facing a severe shortage of fuel, paper, food and medicine. 

The people of #SriLanka are suffering amid a crippling economic crisis that has been accumulating for more than a decade.#srilankacrisis pic.twitter.com/oqsMLAm1pZ

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 16, 2022

Over the weekend, the president declared a state of emergency, handing more power to the military to conduct arrest as protests demanding Rajapaksa's resignation worsened. 

Furthermore, protesters gathered in airports and set up checkpoints to ensure that none of the politicians from Rajapaksa's party escape the country. Namal Rajapaksa, the prime minister's son, said that they had no intention of leaving. 

Gotabaya Rajapaksa urged citizens to “remain calm and stop violence and acts of revenge against citizens, irrespective of political affiliations”.

“All efforts will be made to restore political stability through consensus, within constitutional mandate and to resolve economic crisis,” the president said in a tweet.