Lankan protesters 'peacefully withdrawing' from official buildings
Sri Lanka's anti-government protesters, who forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from his official residence at the weekend, announced Thursday that they will vacate key buildings they have overrun.
"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.
Earlier, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe demanded the evacuation of state buildings and instructed security forces to do "what is necessary to restore order".
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A top Buddhist monk supporting the campaign had earlier called for the more than 200-years-old presidential palace to be handed back to authorities and ensure its valuable art and artefacts were preserved.
Protests against the economic crisis have simmered for months and came to a head last weekend when hundreds of thousands of people took over government buildings in Colombo, blaming the powerful Rajapaksa family and allies for runaway inflation, shortages and corruption.
The area around parliament was deserted on Thursday morning. Police manned a barricade on the approach road. Nearby, life returned to normal, with shops open and plenty of cars on the road.
The night before, an intersection there was packed with several hundred protesters and ambulances regularly ferried the injured out of the area.
According to a BBC report, hospital officials have said that one person died and 84 others injured after protests rocked the city on Wednesday
The 26-year-old man reportedly died after developing breathing difficulties when forces opened tear gas to control the situation.
Sri Lanka's main city, Colombo, was calm on Thursday as people waited for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to the Maldives to escape a popular uprising that erupted as the country struggles with an economic crisis.
Rajapaksa was expected to head to Singapore though his final destination was not clear.
His decision on Wednesday to make his ally Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe the acting president triggered more protests, with demonstrators storming parliament and the premier's office demanding that he quit too.
Rajapaksa had repeatedly assured the speaker of parliament that he would step down on Wednesday, but his resignation letter had not arrived as of early Thursday, said an aide to Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.
