University students face tear gas, water canons

COLOMBO: Police fired tear gas and used water canons to disperse university students who were walking in a protest march in Colombo, demanding that President Ranil Wickremesinghe resign.

Local television channels showed police arresting some of the protestors.

Protestors accused Wickremesinghe of being a surrogate of Rajapaksa and trying to suppress the rights of the people to protest.

They paraded along the main roads in the Colombo, shouting slogans and displaying banners that read “Go Ranil Go, get lost with ALL Rajapaksas,” “Stop Suppression and “Release all the arrested protestors.”

Since his election, Wickremesinghe has authorized the military and police to violently dismantle protest camps in Colombo and arrest those they identified to have trespassed in the president’s official residence and other state buildings.

Rights groups have accused Sri Lanka’s government of using emergency laws to harass and arbitrarily detain protesters who are seeking political reform and accountability.

However, Wickremesinghe has said that although the protests started peacefully, groups with political interests took over later and became violent, citing the burning of dozens of ruling party politicians’ homes in May.