Army denies opening fire at protesters

The Army on Sunday categorically denied having opened fire at the protesters but added soldiers fired a few rounds to the air and the sidewalls of the main gate entrance to the President’s House compound as a deterrent, aimed at preventing the entry of the protesters into the compound on Saturday.

Issuing a statement the Sri Lanka Army said its attention has been drawn to a few video clips going viral claiming that the Army troops opened fire at protesters in order to cause intentional harm to them when they were attempting to forcibly enter the President’s House compound in Colombo, Fort on Saturday (9) afternoon.

The Army categorically denies having opened fire towards the protesters, but fired a few rounds to the air and the sidewalls of the main gate entrance to the President’s House compound as a deterrent, aimed at preventing the entry of the protesters into the compound.

“Firing into the air and sidewalls do not therefore necessarily mean that those Army personnel on duty were intent on causing deliberate harm to the protesters,” the Army said.