Protester (L) talks to members of Lankan security forces at the site of the protest camp
Colombo:
Hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers and police raided the main anti-government protest camp in the capital early Friday and began tearing down tents of unarmed activists, an AFP reporter said.
They charged into protesters who blocked the Presidential Palace Secretariat in the capital a few hours before the protesters left the area.
Security officers armed with batons began removing the barricades set up by protesters blocking the main gate of the Presidential Palace, which they had partially overrun earlier this month.
Activists have announced that they plan to leave the area on Friday afternoon, after a cabinet was sworn in by the new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Eyewitnesses saw troops surround the maritime duty headquarters and dismantle some of the makeshift structures set up in the area to provide logistics for thousands of anti-government protesters since April.
Security forces used large hairs to ask several hundred protesters to pull back and confine themselves in a designated area near the secret service.
Several activists were arrested by the military, who smashed tents set up along the main road leading to the president’s office.
Supporters of the #GoHomeGota campaign to force President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign took over the area after capturing Rajapaksa’s palace on July 9, forcing him to flee and eventually resign.
Following Rajapaksa’s resignation, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe temporarily took over the leadership until he was confirmed as the new president in a parliamentary vote on Wednesday.
Wickremesinghe has vowed to take tough action against the protesters and warned that it is illegal to occupy state buildings and that they will be deported unless they leave voluntarily.
He also distinguished between peaceful protesters and “rioters” and said there would be no room for troublemakers.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
