Protesters facing live fire from cops
VIOLENCE SPREADS: SRI LANKANS DYING IN CLASHES
Hotel belonging to family of president set alight on Tuesday night.
Sri Lankan police have been ordered to go on the offensive and use live ammunition to prevent “anarchy”, a top official said yesterday after another night of sporadic arson attacks.
Police say eight people have died since Monday, when frustration at a dire economic crisis erupted into violence between backers and opponents of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, injuring more than 200 people.
Even with a curfew and thousands of security forces told to “shoot on sight” to prevent further unrest, a luxury hotel said to belong to a Rajapaksa relative was set ablaze on Tuesday evening.
“It is no longer spontaneous anger, but organised violence,” the senior security official said on condition of anonymity. “If the situation is not brought under control, there could be total anarchy.”
He said the 85 000-strong police force have been ordered to use live ammunition against troublemakers.
On Tuesday evening, police said they shot into the air at two locations to disperse mobs trying to torch vehicles. They also stepped up security for several judges, who were targeted, too.
Yesterday, protesters defied the curfew and remained camped out in front of the president’s office.
“We want the whole Rajapaksa clan out because they are so, so corrupt. They have been eating into Sri Lanka like a caterpillar eating into some fruit or leaf,” activist Kaushalya Fernando said.
Rajapaksa’s government in 2020 restored the president’s constitutional right to appoint and fire ministers as well as judges.
“In the guise of angry mobs, violence is being incited so military rule can be established,” SJB party head Sajith Premadasa tweeted. “Rule of law should be maintained through the constitution not with guns.”
Sri Lankans have been suffering shortages of essential goods, fuel and medicines for months in the island’s worst downturn since independence in 1948.
But the crisis moved into a darker phase on Monday when government supporters attacked demonstrators who had been protesting peacefully for weeks demanding the president’s resignation.
Mobs retaliated across the country late into the night, torching homes of ruling party politicians.
Mahinda Rajapaksa had to be rescued in a pre-dawn military operation on Tuesday and taken to a naval dockyard for safety after protesters tried to storm his official residence.
One ruling party politician gunned down two people on Monday night after his car was surrounded.
Another shot dead a 27-yearold man and them himself, police said. –