New Delhi: According to a local media report, the anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka on Sunday (July 10, 2022) claimed that they had recovered millions of rupees inside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official residence. In a video doing rounds on social media platforms, the protestors, who broke into embattled President Rajapaksa’s residence, can be seen counting the currency notes that were unearthed. The recovered money was said to be handed over to the security units, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.
Authorities have informed that they will take steps to announce the ground situation after probing the relevant facts, the daily reported.
Read key developments of Sri Lanka crisis here:
– Earlier, on Saturday, thousands of protesters in Sri Lanka stormed President’s house in the capital Colombo after breaking the barricades and clashing with the police in one of the largest marches against the government in the crisis-hit country this year.
– Another group of protesters entered the private residence of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and set it on fire.
– President Rajapaksa’s whereabouts is still not known. Several reports have said that Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled after protesters surrounded his palace.
Colombo, Sri Lanka | Our protests will continue till July 13 till the time President resigns. For 6 months a group of people will stay here while others will move back. We want justice, we are protesting for our rights, says a protestor Sahajay#SriLankaCrisis pic.twitter.com/Hz94PwoD05– ANI (@ANI) July 10, 2022
– Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has been voicing Presidents’ sides since the protesters stormed into the city. Abeywardena also announced that the President would resign on Wednesday.
– Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has also offered to resign. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said that he is willing to resign and make way for an all-party government to take over in the country. The Prime Minister’s Media Division said that the Prime Minister will resign after an all-party government is established and the majority is secured in Parliament.
– The Speaker would become the acting President in the absence of both the President and the Prime Minister. Later, an election among MPs must happen to elect a new President.
– Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, crippled by an acute shortage of foreign exchange that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports of fuel, and other essentials.
– The country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, had announced in April that it is suspending nearly USD 7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about USD 25 billion due through 2026.
– Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt stands at $51 billion.
(With agency inputs)