Sri Lankan forces arrested and explicated the leading protest sites

July 25, 2022: -On Friday, Sri Lankan security forces arrested several people. They removed the central camp protesters settled for around three months while urging the nation’s leaders to resign more than an unprecedented economic collapse.

Army and police personnel is coming in trucks and buses around midnight which removes tents and protests banners at the site near the presidential palace in the capital, Colombo, where demonstrators have gathered for the last 104 days. They blocked off roads that led to the site and carried long poles.

The security forces were also experiencing beating up at least two journalists. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the leading lawyers’ body in the country, said that at least two lawyers were assaulted when they went to the demonstration site to offer their counsel. On Friday, its report named for a halt to armed forces’ “unjustified and disproportionate actions” against civilians.

The move against the protesters followed the swearing-in Thursday of new President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was chosen by lawmakers earlier this week to finish the term of the leader who ran the country after protesters stormed his residence.

He now has the power to choose a prime minister to succeed himself.

The months of protests concentrated on the ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family’s political dynasty. Still, Wickremesinghe has drawn their ire as a perceived Rajapaksa surrogate and an example of the country’s problematic political establishment.

Sri Lanka’s economic chaos has left the nation’s 22 million people struggling with essential shortages, including medicine, fuel, and food.

On Monday, as acting president, Wickremesinghe is declaring a state of emergency that is giving him broad authority to act in the interest of public security and order. Leaders have the power to search for beliefs and detain people, and Wickremesinghe can change or suspend any law.

On Friday, he issued a notice calling out the armed forces to maintain law and order under the state of emergency. Parliament must review the crisis regularly to decide whether to extend it or let it expire.

Wickremesinghe, 73, has vast experience in diplomatic and international affairs and has been overseeing bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund. On Monday, he said those discussions were near a conclusion, and lectures on help from other countries had also progressed. He said that the government had taken steps to resolve fuel and cooking gas shortages.