A day after being sworn in as Sri Lanka’s new President, Ranil Wickremesinghe is cracking down on civil unrest with raids by security forces on the protest camps that ousted his predecessor.
The Security forces raided the protesters’ encampments just after midnight. A police spokesperson said the protesters had no right to occupy government property. The crackdown comes a day after Ranil Wickremesinghe became President
The camps had been set up on government grounds more than three months ago, their occupants demanding then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign over an unprecedented economic collapse that has caused severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
Media footage showed riot-gear-clad soldiers armed with assault rifles tearing down tents and other makeshift structures outside the Presidential Secretariat in the capital, Colombo.
Protest organisers said hundreds of security personnel surrounded the camp after midnight and dismantled a section of it. As daylight broke, dozens of troops marched through the rows of tents, clearing them out, and erecting their own barricades.
