Crisis-hit Lanka imposes curfew as food, fuel and power shortage trigger protest

The Sri Lankan government on Saturday imposed a 36hour curfew as a nationwide public emergency has been enforced ahead of a planned antigovernment rally over the worst economic crisis in the island nation that has hit the common man badlyThe islandwide curfew has been imposed with effect from 6 pm Saturday to 6 am Monday April 4 the information department saidPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa has given the directive under the Public Security Ordinance regulations it saidThe move came as the island nation braced for countrywide protests on Sunday against the governments poor handling of the ongoing economic crisis where people currently endure long hours of power outages and scarcity of essentials The imposition of curfew would prevent citizens from holding protestsPresident Rajapaksa issued a special gazette notification late on Friday night declaring a public emergency in Sri Lanka with immediate effect from April 1In the gazette the President states Whereas I am of the opinion that by reason of a public emergency in Sri Lanka it is expedient to do so in the interests of public security the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the communityCommenting on the emergency independent thinktank Centre for Policy Alternatives said that regulations may impose restrictions on certain fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution one of them would be among others the rights to freedom of expression assembly association movement occupation religion culture and languageLawyers commented that the regulations gave the police sweeping powers to arrest anyone for unlawful assemblyThe regulations must be approved in Parliament every 30 days from their impositionThe declaration came at the same time as the court ordered bail to a section of the protesters arrested for the demonstration opposite Rajapaksas private residence on ThursdayLawyer Nuwan Bopage who was among around 500 lawyers gathered at the Colombo suburban Gangodawila magistrates court to give free counsel said that out of the 54 arrested as many as 21 were given bail Six were remanded until April 4The rest of the 27 are in hospitals with severe assault injuriesThis was a very significant ruling The court asked the police to file evidence of each of their involvement in acts of violence They could not do so Bopage saidThe government blamed the Rajapaksa residence incidents on an extreme group connected to the Opposition political partiesThe protesters said that participants had no political motivation and were only looking for solutions from the government for the hardships heaped on the publicSeveral people were injured and vehicles were set on fire as the agitation turned violent Police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters after they pulled down a steel barricade placed near the presidents residence Following the incident several people were arrested and a curfew briefly imposed in most parts of Colombo cityA statement issued by the presidential media division on Friday said an extremist group was behind the unrest near President Rajapaksas residence in MirihanaThe police said that five policemen were injured while a police bus a jeep and two motorcycles were burnt as protesters turned violent The demonstrators also caused damage to a police water cannon truckA Sri Lankan man on Saturday alleged that his son who is a social media activist has been abducted by the police after a state of emergency amidst protests over the countrys worst economic crisisAnurudda Bandaras father said his son was taken away by someone from the north Colombo police station of Modera on Friday nightAccording to the police he was wanted to be questioned over his social media activitiesSri Lanka is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in history With long lines for fuel cooking gas essentials in short supply and long hours of power cuts the public has been suffering for weeksMeanwhile a consignment of 40000 metric tonnes of diesel from India reached Sri Lanka on Saturday the fourth such assistance from New Delhi to mitigate the spike in power cuts in the island nation which is facing an unprecedented economic and energy crisis caused due to shortage of foreign exchangeRajapaksa has defended his governments actions saying the foreign exchange crisis was not his making and the economic downturn was largely pandemic driven where the islands tourism revenue and inward remittances waningThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever