COLOMBO: Sri Lankan security factors demolished the main anti-government protest camp in the capital early Friday (Jul 22) plus evicted activists hrs before the new president was due to title a Cabinet.
The raid came a day right after veteran politician Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the crisis-hit country’s new chief, replacing Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled and resigned after protesters overran his palace.
Troops and police Special Job Force commandos choose batons and automated assault rifles swooped in on protesters blocking the capital’s Presidential Secretariat hours before they were due to vacate the area.
Hundreds of soldiers removed barricades set up by protesters blocking the primary gate of the sea-front building, which demonstrators had partly overrun earlier this month.
An armoured personnel carrier seemed to be seen in the area.
Activists had announced they planned to hand over the building, a symbol of state authority, on Friday mid-day, after a Cabinet was sworn in simply by Wickremesinghe.
The Cabinet, which is likely to feature a cross-section associated with political parties, deals with the difficult task of steering the country away from its worst financial crisis since gaining independence from Britain in 1948.
Witnesses saw soldiers around the colonial-era developing and removing short-term structures set up to deliver logistics for a large number of anti-government demonstrators considering that early April.