Sri Lanka President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Saturday escaped being killed by mammoth crowd of angry Sri Lanka protesters, who stormed his presidential residence to chase him away or forced him to leave office due to the hardship in the country.
It was gathered that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa managed to escape via Naval vessel to a safer port after the crowd of protesters overpowered a large team of security operatives, who threw teargas and shot sporadically into the air on the streets, leading to the presidential Villa to scare away the protests, but to no avail.
Details of the chaos as reported by some of the news media are presented below:
PEOPLE POWER IN SRI LANKA
Sri Lanka has totally collapsed as the Prime Minister declares the nation bankrupt. Angry Sri Lankans stormed the Presidential Palace. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled the country on board a navy vessel.
Protestors participate in an anti-government demonstration outside the President’s office in Colombo on Saturday.
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced his resignation on Saturday, hours after a crowd of angry protesters chased him from his residence, as months of frustration brought on by an unprecedented economic crisis boiled over.
Hundreds of thousands of people massed in the capital Colombo to demand the government take responsibility for mismanaging the nation’s finances, and for crippling food and fuel shortages.
After storming the gates of the presidential palace, a throng of protesters walked through its rooms, with some among the boisterous crowd jumping into the compound’s pool.
Others were seen laughing and lounging in the stately bedrooms of the residence, with one pulling out what he claimed was a pair of Rajapaksa’s underwear.
At around the same time, the leader had boarded a naval craft at the Colombo port and was taken to the island’s southern waters, where he let it be known he was finally bowing to months of calls for his resignation.
“To ensure a peaceful transition, the president said he will step down on July 13,” parliamentary speaker Mahinda Abeywardana said in a televised statement.
Rajapaksa had to be extracted from his residence by troops who fired into the air to keep the crowd outside at bay.
Soon after they stormed the presidential palace, Rajapaksa’s nearby seafront office also fell into the hands of protesters.
(AFP photos) via Agence France-Presse
@views exclusive rights: TagapagMulat, July 10, 2022.
Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister agreed to resign Saturday after the country’s most chaotic day in months of political turmoil, with protesters storming both officials’ homes and setting fire to one of the buildings in a rage over the nation’s severe economic crisis.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he will leave office once a new government is in place, and hours later the speaker of Parliament said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would step down Wednesday.
Pressure on both men grew as the economic meltdown set off acute shortages of essential items, leaving people struggling to buy food, fuel and other necessities.
Police had attempted to thwart promised protests with a curfew, then lifted it as lawyers and opposition politicians denounced it as illegal.
Thousands of protesters entered the capital, Colombo, and swarmed into Rajapaksa’s fortified residence. Video images showed jubilant crowds splashing in the garden pool, lying on beds and using their cellphone cameras to capture the moment. Some made tea, while others issued statements from a conference room demanding that the president and prime minister go.
It was not clear if Rajapaksa was there at the time, and government spokesman Mohan Samaranayake said he had no information about the president’s movements.
Protesters later broke into the prime minister’s private residence and set it on fire, Wickremesinghe’s office said. It wasn’t immediately clear if he was there when the incursion happened.
Earlier, police fired tear gas at protesters who gathered in the streets to march on the presidential residence, waving flags, banging drums and chanting slogans. In all, more than 30 people were hurt in Saturday’s chaos.
(Wire photos) via Associated Press
@views exclusive rights: Philippine Stars, July 10, 2022.
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