Protesters in Sri Lanka’s largest city Colombo held numerous small, peaceful demonstrations over a severe economic crisis on Sunday, defying a nationwide curfew, while police used tear gas to disperse student protesters in the central city of Kandy.
A senior police officer said officers used tear gas and water cannons to stop a protest of university students in Kandy.
“There were about 750 participants but no arrests were made,” said Nihal Thalduwa, a police spokesman. Thalduwa said over 600 people who were arrested in the Western Province on Saturday night for breaking curfew orders were released on bail given by the police and charges would be filed against them later.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency on Friday as the Indian Ocean island nation grapples with rising prices, shortages of essentials and rolling power cuts. On Saturday, the government implemented a countrywide curfew after protests turned violent.
On Sunday afternoon the government lifted a block it had placed on social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp hours earlier. Telecommunications Regulatory Commission chairman Jayantha de Silva said the measure had been carried out on instruction from the defence ministry and aimed to “maintain calm”. De Silva later told Reuters restrictions had been lifted.
While the block was in place, minister for youth and sports Namal Rajapaksa, the President’s nephew, nonetheless sent a tweet in which he said he would “never condone the blocking of social media”.
In Colombo soldiers armed with assault rifles and the police manned checkpoints to enforce the curfew, which is scheduled to run until till 6am on Monday. Around two dozen Opposition leaders protested at police barricades near Independence Square, some shouting ”Gota(baya) Go Home”.
Others stood in small groups outside their homes or gathered in the street, some holding handwritten anti-government banners or waving the national flag.
“This government, we do not want them anymore. They have had years and years to show us that they could do change but there is nothing. The situation has just got worse by the day,” said protester Anjalee Wanduragala, 22, a student at the University of Colombo.
