‘SHOOT TO KILL’ EDICT
Sri Lankan authorities have issued a shoot-onsight order to quell unrest that has seen buildings and vehicles set ablaze a day after the island was rocked by deadly violence and rioting.
With thousands of security forces enforcing a strict curfew, the defence ministry said troops “have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone looting public property or causing harm to life”.
On Monday, government supporters with sticks and clubs attacked demonstrators in Colombo who were protesting peacefully for weeks over a dire economic crisis and demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation.
Mobs then retaliated across the country late into the night, torching dozens of homes of ruling party politicians and trying to storm the Prime Minister’s official residence in the capital. Police said eight people had died.
Protests continued despite the curfew, with some people defying the shoot-on-sight order to torch buildings and vehicles. A luxury hotel said to belong to a Rajapaksa relative was set on fire on the edge of the Sinharaja rainforest.
And police shot into the air at two locations to disperse mobs trying to burn vehicles.
Earlier, a crowd had attacked and set fire to a vehicle carrying Colombo’s most senior policeman. Officers fired warning shots and sent in reinforcements to rescue Senior Deputy Inspector-general Deshabandu Tennakoon, who was rushed to hospital but later released.
In another sign of deteriorating security in the country, vigilante groups blocked the main road to Colombo airport to check for any Rajapaksa loyalists trying to flee the country, witnesses said.
As well as those killed, more than 225 people were injured on Monday, which also saw the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
But his departure failed to quell public anger. His brother is President and wields immense power, including command of the security forces.
Mahinda Rajapaksa had to be rescued in a pre-dawn military operation after thousands of angry protesters stormed his official residence and lobbed petrol bombs.
Protester Chamal Polwattage said he expected demonstrations to swell again and vowed they would not leave “until the President goes”.
Sri Lanka has been devastated by months of blackouts and shortages of essential goods in Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
The pandemic torpedoed vital tourism and forced the government to halt most imports to save foreign currency needed to pay its debts, on which it has now defaulted.
But after weeks of peaceful demonstrations, Monday’s brutal attacks on protesters by government forces represented a turning point.
In the ensuing violence, police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds and declared a curfew across the entire South Asian nation.