Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a nationwide public emergency late on Friday following violent protests over the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
Rajapaksa said in a government gazette notification that he took decision in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and essential services.
The Indian Ocean island nation of 22 million people faces rolling blackouts for up to 13 hours a day as the government scrambles to secure foreign exchange to pay for fuel imports.The country's lucrative tourism industry and foreign workers' remittances have been sapped by the pandemic, and public finances were hit further by deep tax cuts promised by Rajapaksa during his 2019 election campaign.
An alliance of 11 political parties has urged Rajapaksa to dissolve the cabinet and form a government with all parties to deal with the crisis, local media said, in a nation where both India and China are competing to build influence. At least two dozen police personnel were injured in the clashes, an official said, declining to comment on the number of protesters hurt.
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