Sri Lanka’s defense chief and army chief General Shavendra Silva has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Sri Lanka’s military have been made more than once.
On Tuesday (May 10), General Shavendra Silva said that members of the armed forces would not commit such an insult under any circumstances.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Earlier, Duminda Nagamuya, leader of the Sri Lankan Frontline Socialist Party, claimed that the government had ordered the armed forces to shoot at protesters if they provoked the Sri Lankan people to loot government property or harm people.
In a statement, the country’s defense ministry said it had instructed the three forces to fire blank shots at those who would destroy and loot the country’s resources.
The announcement came on behalf of the country’s defense ministry as angry mobs stormed the homes of one organization after another and politicians in power. In two days, protesters set fire to at least 50 houses, including the house of a ruling party MP.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to step down in the face of protests last Monday (May 9). Despite this, the protests did not stop. Two days of violence have so far killed eight people in the country. Two hundred more people were injured in the clash.
Ordinary people of the country are trapped in various problems including power outages, severe gas and water crisis, food crisis, skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. They say Sri Lanka’s economy has not suffered such a setback since independence in 1947. For the past few weeks, there has been a movement to normalize the economic situation and demand the resignation of the Prime Minister and the President. Violent incidents continue to occur across the country this week. The government necessarily imposed curfews everywhere, including the capital Colombo.
Meanwhile, shops, businesses and offices in the country remained closed on Wednesday for the third day in a row as curfew continued till Thursday morning. Many law enforcement officers patrol the streets of Colombo.