COLOMBO — Sri Lankan authorities issued shoot-on-sight
orders on Tuesday to quell further unrest a day after the island was rocked by
deadly violence and rioting.
اضافة اعلان
With thousands of security forces enforcing a
curfew, the defense ministry said troops “have been ordered to shoot on sight
anyone looting public property or causing harm to life”.
On Monday, government supporters attacked with
sticks and clubs demonstrators in Colombo protesting peacefully for weeks over
a dire economic crisis and demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya
Rajapaksa.
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 Tuesday that in total eight people died.
Protests continued on Tuesday despite the curfew.
A crowd 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 after treatment.
In another sign of rapidly deteriorating security,
vigilante groups blocked the main road to Colombo airport to check for any
Rajapaksa loyalists trying to leave the island, 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.
His departure however failed to quell public anger,
with his brother still president and wielding widespread powers and command
over the security forces.
Mahinda had to be rescued in a pre-dawn military
operation after thousands of angry protesters stormed his official residence
overnight and lobbed petrol bombs.
Protester Chamal Polwattage said he expected
demonstrations to swell again and vowed they would not leave “until the
president goes”.
“People are angry about the attacks launched against
us yesterday ... We have a lot of volunteers bringing food and water for us,”
the 25-year-old told AFP.
‘Deeply troubled’
The Rajapaksa clan’s hold on power has been shaken 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 attacks on protesters by government
supporters 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 until Wednesday.
Angry crowds set
alight the homes of at least 41 pro-Rajapaksa politicians.
Several Rajapaksa
homes were torched, while a family museum in their ancestral village was
trashed.
Outside Colombo,
ruling-party lawmaker Amarakeerthi Athukorala shot two people — killing one of
them — when surrounded by a crowd of protesters, police said.
The MP later took
his own life, officers said, but the ruling party said he had been murdered.
The lawmaker’s bodyguard was also killed.
Another
ruling-party politician who was not named shot dead two protesters and wounded
five others in the south, police added.
UN rights chief
Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday she was “deeply troubled” by the violence
committed both by supporters of the government and the subsequent “mob
violence” against ruling party members.
Bachelet in a
statement called for an investigation and urged the government to “engage in
meaningful dialogue with all parts of society”.
Unity government?
Mahinda Rajapaksa
said his resignation was intended to pave the way for a unity government, but
it was unclear if the opposition would join any administration led by his
brother.
The president has
the power to appoint and fire ministers as well as judges, and enjoys immunity
from prosecution.
Political sources
said attempts were underway to arrange an online meeting between the president
and all political parties.
“Unless President Rajapaksa steps down, no one — whether the
masses in the streets or key political stakeholders — will be appeased,”
analyst Michael Kugelman from the Wilson Center told AFP.
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