After hectic protests were held in Colombo city for the past few days demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the City became relatively calm yesterday. However security in the city has been beefed up.
The protesters themselves decided to vacate the government buildings including the President’s House by yesterday afternoon, aiming to restore peace in the country.
“We are peacefully withdrawing from the Presidential Palace, the Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office with immediate effect, but will continue our struggle,” a spokeswoman said.
Addressing a press briefing held at the protest grounds yesterday, Fr. Jeewantha Peiris stated that the protesters would vacate the occupied government buildings and hand them over to the authorities. He said they took this decision as a measure to protect the peace in the country, after the Speaker’s statement.
Pictures by Rukmal Gamage, Sulochana Gamage and Malan Karunarathne