Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa today declared a state of emergency giving security forces sweeping powers for the second time in five weeks to deal with escalating anti-government protests.
A spokesman for the President said he invoked the tough laws to “ensure public order” after trade unions staged a nationwide strike Friday demanding his resignation over a worsening economic crisis.
Earlier today, the police again fired tear gas and water cannon at students trying to storm Sri Lanka’s parliament as the country was brought to a halt by a trade union strike demanding the government step down.
Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have caused widespread suffering across the island nation of 22 million people.Public anger has sparked sustained protests demanding the government’s resignation over its mismanagement of the crisis, Sri Lanka’s worst since independence in 1948.
