Sri Lanka PM Calls For Emergency Meet As Protesters Storm Inside President's Home | Key Points

PM Wickremesinghe called political party leaders to the meeting and also requested that parliament assemble immediately to handle the problem.

Sri Lankan university students protest, against Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. ( Image Source :Getty Images )

After President Gotabaya Rajapaksa departed his official house on Saturday, Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called an emergency cabinet meeting to seek a "quick resolution" to a potential power vacuum, news agency AFP reported.

Wickremesinghe, who is next in line to succeed Rajapaksa if he resigns, called political party leaders to the meeting and also requested that parliament assemble immediately to handle the problem, according to his office.

Sri Lankan demonstrators on Saturday took over the President's office in Colombo, NewsWire tweeted along with a video. 

Video footage of Sri Lankan protesters taking over President's office in Colombo

📸 Buddi U Chandrasiri pic.twitter.com/FINwaaqUat

— NewsWire 🇱🇰 (@NewsWireLK) July 9, 2022

Here's Key Points On The Ongoing Sri Lanka's Crisis

• Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has informed Party Leaders that he is prepared to leave as Prime Minister and allow an all-Party Government to take over, as per the PMO, news agency ANI reported.
• According to the Sri Lankan local newspaper Daily Mirror, multiple gunshots were heard in the air, and police deployed tear gas in vain to disperse demonstrators who encircled the presidential residence. According to reports, two persons were wounded.
• Protesters have invaded the President's House, according to the Daily Mirror.
• Sri Lanka's police have imposed a curfew in six police divisions in the Western Province, effective from 9 p.m. local time Friday until further notice, ahead of a scheduled rally today demanding President Rajapaksa's resignation.
• Those who violate the curfew will face harsh punishment, according to the authorities. According to the Sri Lankan journal, travelling through places where a police curfew is in force is absolutely illegal, and authorities have recommended citizens to use alternate routes.
• The country's deteriorating economic situation has heightened tensions, and in recent weeks there have been reports of several clashes between individuals and members of the police and armed forces at fuel stations where thousands of desperate members of the public have queued for hours, if not days.
• At times, police deployed tear gas and water cannons in an unwarranted and excessive manner. Armed forces have also used live gunfire on occasion.
• Sri Lanka is experiencing its biggest economic crisis since winning independence in 1948, which follows on the heels of multiple rounds of COVID-19, threatening to erase years of development gains and significantly compromising the country's capacity to meet the SDGs (SDGs).

(With Agencies Inputs)