Colombo/Bhubaneswar: Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from his post on Monday. He has handed over his resignation to President and his younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
He tweeted, “Effective immediately, I have tendered my resignation as Prime Minister to the President,”.
Prime Minister took the decision to resign on the day supporters of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa attacked anti-government demonstrators in Colombo, leaving at least 78 people injured.
He further tweeted, “While emotions are running high in #Ika, I urge our general public to exercise restraint & remember that violence only begets violence. The economic crisis we’re in needs an economic solution which this administration is committed to resolving,”.
Due to violence in the land, curfew was imposed across the entire island.
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie J. Chung, in a tweet, condemned the violence in Colombo.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa later tweeted condemning the violence.
Sri Lanka is facing severe economic crisis and people are suffering due to shortages of many essentials including food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas. For which, people have been protesting on streets for months and on Friday, trade unions, both private and government, launched a major strike demanding both President and PM Rajapaksa to resign.
