Today (22) while the protestors announced that they would withdraw the protest site in front of the President’s Secretariat, but today (22) at around 1.30 am, a joint force of the Police STF came to Golfe on the direct order of the President Ranil Wickremesinghe, surrounded the protest site and brutalized the unarmed protesters and journalists there.
Police Special Task Force, Army and Air Force personnel were mostly used for this attack. The road from Kollupitiya near Galle Mudura Roundabout is closed and Scout Road near Shangri-La Hotel is also closed. The despicable attack was carried out after closing the road and Lotus Road near Chaitya Road towards Colombo Fort.
At this time, the army also attacked the journalists who reported these attacks and threatened them with death. Journalists Chaturanga Pradeep and Kasun Pradeep were abducted by the army and were later reported to have been hospitalized. When Xposure journalists Rasika Gunawardena, Shabir Mohammed and Chaturanga Pradeep Kumara went to the place for reporting purposes, a group of Air Force personnel who were on guard duty near the Kollupitiya junction, attacked them with sticks. The army did not allow Rasika Gunawardena and Shabir Mohammed, who were attacked, to go to hospital. It is known that among the journalists who were attacked, there are those who represented foreign media. Also The police and the army brutally attacked disabled war heroes.
After The police, issuing a press release about this attack, states that after this heinous attack and during the operation, 09 people were arrested. It is unofficially reported that lawyers Nuwan Bopage and Lahiru Weerasekera are among the arrested persons and the Ceylon Bar Association has protested against this heinous attack.
Citizens should pay attention to this despicable attack which was carried out less than 24 hours after Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as President. If Ranil Wickremesinghe is ready to create a semi-military state for the protection of the republic, it is the duty and defiance of intelligent citizens to oppose it at the first hour. If he does his first duty to suppress the protests aside from taking steps to solve the current economic problem immediately, it will limit the tenure of President Ranil Wickremesinghe himself.
