Sri Lanka Economic Crisis: Armed Security Forces Block Oppn Protest March

Heavily armed Sri Lankan security forces blocked a march led by opposition legislators who had defied a weekend curfew, AFP reported.

Special Task Force (STF) personnel standing on guard along a street in Colombo. (File Image: AFP)

New Delhi: The armed security forces in Sri Lanka on Sunday blocked a protest march by the Opposition in defiance of an emergency curfew to protest the worsening economic crisis in the island nation.

Heavily armed Sri Lankan security forces blocked a march led by opposition legislators who had defied a weekend curfew, AFP reported.

More than 100 had joined the march before it was stopped by police and soldiers carrying assault rifles, an AFP photographer at the scene witnessed.

Meanwhile, Opposition legislator Eran Wickramaratne said the spiralling situation in Sri Lanka raised the prospects of martial law.

“We can't allow a military takeover,” AFP quoted Wickramaratne as saying.

“They should know we are still a democracy,” he added.

The development comes as Sri Lanka has blocked social media to contain anti-government protests.

The Sri Lankan government blocked social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram, after midnight on Sunday, April 3, 2022 (local time), confirmed NetBlocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and the governance of the Internet.

Earlier on Saturday, the government declared a state of emergency, imposing a 36-hour curfew to counter widespread protests over the economic crisis.

The curfew was imposed ahead of a planned anti-government rally over the worst economic crisis in the island nation.

The order came a day after Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa invoked a state of emergency following a violent attempt to storm his house.

The crisis, according to many economists, has been exacerbated by mismanagement on part of the government, years of accumulated borrowing and ill-advised tax cuts.