Kuwait City, 20th April 2022:
Sri Lankan town under curfew after police kill protester
Blackouts and acute shortages of food and fuel have sparked increasing public discontent
Sri Lanka: Police enforced a curfew on Wednesday in a Sri Lankan town where an anti-government demonstrator was killed, a death that triggered international condemnation just as the crisis-hit country seeks an IMF bailout.
Regular blackouts and acute shortages of food and fuel have sparked increasing public discontent in the island nation, which is dealing with its worst economic downturn since independence in 1948.
Huge protests have demanded the government’s resignation, including the Tuesday blockade of a key highway and railway line on the day Sri Lanka’s main petrol retailer announced another sudden price rise.
Police dispersed the crowd in the town of Rambukkana with tear gas and a volley of live rounds that left a 42-year-old father of two dead, with nearly 30 others wounded in the confrontation.
“I was hit with a baton on my leg and hand,” Vasantha Kumara, a local chef, told AFP on Wednesday. “I begged the cops not to beat me, but they didn’t listen.”
“People are angry. We are all poor people fighting for basics.”
Authorities extended the curfew in Rambukkana, around 95 kilometres (60 miles) east of the capital Colombo, into Wednesday with shops closed through the morning.
Spent bullet cartridges littered the road hours after the previous evening’s protest, which saw thousands of people blocking rail tracks and the highway to the central city of Kandy.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said he was “deeply saddened” by the police shooting and promised the public’s right to peacefully protest against his government would not be hindered.
Sri Lanka’s police force “will carry out an impartial and transparent inquiry”, he wrote on Twitter.
Police said they were forced to act when the crowd was about to set alight a fuel tanker – a claim dismissed by Sri Lanka’s political opposition.
“These people are not suicidal to burn a tanker and get killed in the process,” lawmaker Rohini Kumari Wijerathna said in parliament.
iiQ8 News
- Sri Lankan town under curfew after police kill protester
- MOI Kuwait – Family visit visas expected to open on 8th May
- How to search for WORDS within FILES on Windows?
- Anchor Anasuya Bhardwaj Beautiful Latest Photo Gallery, అనసూయ
- IGNOU B.Ed Entrance Exam FAQs
- IGNOU B.Ed Entrance Exam Notification Highlights
- Kuwait Launches Immunity Passport Service, iiQ8 COVID-19
- Is Windows 11 required 5G? , Feature-specific requirements for Windows 11
- Windows 11 specs, features, and computer requirements, iiQ8 info
- Automated linking between the Ministries of Health and Vaccine Certificate
- Qatar Golden Tulip Doha #Eid #Holiday Offer in #Doha #ShareMeBook
- Update Passport Number in Vaccination Certificate via MoH WhatsApp
- The most expensive in black watermelon? $6,000, ( 1,831.80 Kuwaiti Dinar )
- Kuwaiti man arrested for smoking, dancing in public during Ramadan
- How to fix low value content in AdSense?