Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremesinghe asks military to take all necessary steps to restore order

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has asked the military to do "whatever is necessary to restore order" after protesters stormed his office. Mr Wickremesinghe has been appointed acting president by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who has fled the country.  But the decision to leave him in charge triggered further protests demanding that the prime minister must also go.

Sri Lanka has been suffering from its worst economic crisis in decades.

Many blame the Rajapaksa administration for the crisis and see Mr Wickremesinghe, who became prime minister in May, as part of the problem.

For the second time in less than a week, protesters broke into a highly secure state building yesterday. This time it was prime minister's office.

In a television address, Mr Wickremesinghe called on protesters to leave his occupied office and other state buildings and co-operate with authorities.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe,  took over as acting president and declared a state of emergency. However, protests intensified even after the imposition of emergency with the demonstrators defiant amid tear gas shells fired by the security forces. The protesters even stormed the Prime Minister's residence, demanding his resignation. 

The unit of India's biggest oil



firm, Lanka IOC, has asked all its 216 petrol pumps in Sri Lanka to maintain a separate fuel stockpile for supply to ambulances in the crisis-hit island nation. The company, which is a subsidiary of state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), is operating all its petrol pumps normally and is provisioning to meet the increased rush.

Lanka IOC Managing Director Manoj Gupta told this to a news agency. Sri Lanka's Defence Chief, General Shavendra Silva said,  the armed forces and police would respect the constitution, and asked protesters to maintain calm.

Meanwhile,  Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fled the country and took refuge in the Maldives faced protests, with dozens of compatriots urging Male not to provide him safe haven. According to news agencies, Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa who left for the Maldives early this morning is to leave for Singapore later.

The crisis in Sri Lanka is said to have begun due to multiple compounding factors like external debt, a nationwide policy to shift to organic or biological farming, tax cuts, Easter bombings in 2019, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. India has been helping Sri Lanka through humanitarian assistance worth over 3.5 billion dollars by providing food, medicines and fuel through several lines of credit.