Lagatar24 Desk
Colombo, July 9: Prior to a massive gathering planned for later in the day calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation, crisis-hit Sri Lanka waived a curfew on Saturday that had already been flouted by thousands of people during the course of the previous night.
The march, the most recent manifestation of dissatisfaction triggered by the nation’s unparalleled economic crisis, has already attracted huge crowd to the capital Colombo.
After opposition parties, rights advocates, and the bar association threatened to sue the police chief, officers rescinded the stay-at-home order that had been issued the previous evening.
Numerous anti-government demonstrators disregarded the curfew, forcing the railway administration to run trains to transport them to Colombo for the rally on Saturday, according to officials.
“The curfew was not a deterrent, in fact it encouraged more people to get on the streets in defiance,” a top defence official told AFP.
“Passengers had commandeered trains to reach Colombo.”
After running out of foreign cash to import essential products, Sri Lanka has endured months of food and fuel shortages, protracted blackouts, and escalating inflation.
Conflicts broke out around the nation in May after Rajapaksa supporters attacked nonviolent protestors outside the president’s office, resulting in nine fatalities and hundreds more injuries.
Sri Lanka has been in bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund after defaulting on its $51 billion external debt.
