Sri Lanka Crisis: Rajapaksa To Go To Saudi Arabia? Protesters Agree To Leave Official Buildings, Curfew Re-Imposed

Gotabaya Rajpakasa is said to have boarded a Saudi Airlines plane that will take him to Singapore and then to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia while Sri Lanka is yet to get an interim government.

File Photo: Protesters look around at the president's official residence a day after it was stormed in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, July 10, 2022.

Source : AFP | PTI

New Delhi: The curfew in the Western province of Sri Lanka was reimposed on Thursday after being lifted in the morning, as confusion prevailed over President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation. The 73-year-old leader had promised to resign on Wednesday and appointed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the acting President hours after he fled the country, escalating the political crisis amid a fresh wave of protests. The curfew had to be reimposed amid fears of violence as there was no word from Rajapaksa on his resignation.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that he informed President Rajapaksa to submit his letter of resignation as soon as possible, stating that he too is under pressure, News First Lanka reported on Thursday.

#WATCH | Sri Lankan military personnel guard the Prime Minister's chair in his office in Colombo, in view of the #SriLankaProtests pic.twitter.com/kd9L7Fevm8

— ANI (@ANI) July 14, 2022

Key Updates:

• At least 84 people were hospitalised when protesters clashed with security forces at the prime minister’s office and at the main access junction to Parliament since mid-afternoon on Wednesday, news agency PTI reported. Wednesday's protests were more directed at Wickremesinghe. Calls for his resignation intensified after he was appointed the acting president.
  
  
• The Associated Press reported Maldives officials as saying that Rajapaksa is taking a Saudi Airlines plane to Singapore and then Saudi Arabia. Gotabaya Rajpakasa boarded a Saudi Airlines plane today that will take him to Singapore and then to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, AP reported citing Maldives government officials
  
  Meanwhile, as per ANI, Rajapaksa and his wife boarded Saudia Airlines flight SV788 to Singapore from Male at 11:30 hrs. They will arrive in Singapore by 7 PM today. ANI sources refuted reports of onward travel to Jeddah. Rajapaksa and his wife will remain in Singapore, they said.

• The protesters, who continue to occupy the key administrative buildings they had seized since Saturday, have agreed to vacate them as they vow to press on with their bid to bring down the president and prime minister in the face of the dire economic crisis, news agency AFP reported. Earlier, the protesters had maintained that they would hand over the properties to authorities only after an interim government takes over.

• According to PTI, political leaders were also asking Wickremesinghe to step down so that Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena can take control as acting president. In a statement, Wickremesinghe asked the Speaker to find a suitable nominee to become the prime minister in an all-party interim government.
  
  
• As per media reports, Rajapaksa had raised security concerns about taking a civilian flight and was urging the Maldives authorities for a private jet to land in Singapore.

The protesters have demanded that the interim government only consist of politicians acceptable to them while President Rajapaksa failed to send in his resignation on Wednesday, contrary to his communication with the Lankan Prime Minister earlier.

Rajapaksa has immunity from prosecution while he is president and he fled the country before resigning to avoid the possibility of arrest by the new government.

On Saturday thousands of protesters stormed his official residence as they continue to seek his resignation, blaming him for the unprecedented economic crisis that has brought the island country to its knees.

Rajapaksa's escape to the Maldives was negotiated by the Maldivian Majlis (Parliament) Speaker and former president Mohamed Nasheed, PTI reported sources in the Maldives capital Male as stating.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials.

Last week, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka is now a bankrupt country.