Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrives in Colombo

Colombo: Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived at Colombo late last night from Bangkok. Rajapaksa had fled the island nation in mid-July when the protesters had stormed the presidential palace displaying anger over the country's worst-ever economic crisis.

Agency sources reported that Mr. Rajapaksa was received by several ministers of the Srilankan government. He later proceeded in a motorcade heavily guarded by armed soldiers and reached a government-allocated house in his capacity as a former president.

The ex-president returned to Sri Lanka on a Singapore Airlines flight. He travelled from Thailand to Singapore to take the flight as there are no direct flights between Bangkok and



Colombo.

Mr. Rajapaksa fled Sri Lanka to the Maldives on a Sri Lanka Airforce plane and then proceeded to Singapore, from where he sent in his resignation on July 14.

Later, he flew to Thailand, seeking temporary shelter from where he returned.

After Mr. Rajapaksa resigned, acting president Ranil Wickremasinghe was elected as the President for the rest of the term till November 2024.

Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948 which was triggered by a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves. The crisis was managed mainly due to India's humanitarian aid worth over 3.8 billion dollars.