Sri Lanka students mob PM Mahinda Rajapaksa’s home over economic crisis
- Months of lengthy blackouts, record inflation and acute food and fuel shortages have sparked increasing public discontent in Sri Lanka
- Student leaders scaled the fence of the PM’s compound after police erected barricades on various roads around the capital to stop them from linking up with demonstrators elsewhere
Thousands of Sri Lankan university students mobbed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s home on Sunday demanding his resignation over the island nation’s worsening economic crisis.
Months of lengthy blackouts, record inflation and acute food and fuel shortages have sparked increasing public discontent in Sri Lanka, which is dealing with its worst economic downturn since independence in 1948.
Sunday’s protest saw student leaders scale the fence of Rajapaksa’s compound in Colombo after police erected barricades on various roads around the capital to stop them from linking up with demonstrators elsewhere.
“You can block the road, but can’t stop our struggle until the entire government goes home,” one unidentified student leader said while standing on top of the walls.
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Facing off against rows of police holding riot shields, protesters tried to pull down the barricades preventing them from entering the residence.
Some carried signs that said “Go Home Gota” – the nickname for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is Mahinda’s younger brother – while others wore the Guy Fawkes mask that have become synonymous with anti-establishment movements.