After the declaration of emergency in Sri Lanka, now a 36-hour nationwide curfew has been implemented on Saturday. The curfew will come into effect from Saturday evening and will be lifted on Monday morning. The government has cited the security of public order behind the imposition of curfew. At present, large-scale protests are taking place in different parts of Sri Lanka. Many incidents of arson have also come to the fore.
Sri Lanka is currently facing a historic economic crisis and long queues of people are being seen for fuel, cooking gas and other essential items. Party general secretary and minister Dayasiri Jayasekara said the central committee on Friday decided to request the formation of the government involving all the parties represented in Parliament.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued a special gazette notification late Friday declaring a public emergency in Sri Lanka with immediate effect from April 1. In a gazette notification, the President said, “In my opinion, the imposition of a public emergency in Sri Lanka is in the interest of maintaining the public security system as well as the supply of essential goods and services to the communities.”
The emergency was declared after a court ordered bail to a group of protesters arrested for protesting in front of Rajapaksa’s residence. The protesters had said that they were not inspired by any political group and their aim was only to find solutions at the government level to the miseries faced by the people.