Sri Lanka Court Bans Ex-PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, Allies From Leaving Country

Mahinda Rajapaksa, who recently resigned as Sri Lanka's prime minister, and his allies were banned from leaving the country by a court over "acts of violence against anti-government demonstrators".

New Delhi: A court in Sri Lanka on Thursday banned Mahinda Rajapaksa, who recently resigned as the prime minister, and his allies from leaving the country over “acts of violence against anti-government demonstrators”, news agency AFP reported.

This comes days after Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as Sri Lanka’s prime minister following weeks of protests demanding that he and his brother, the country’s president, step down for dragging the nation into its worst economic crisis in decades.

Mahinda Rajapaksa had then said on Twitter that he submitted his resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a move that followed a violent attack by government supporters on the protesters, prompting authorities to deploy armed troops in the capital, Colombo.

Four people, including a ruling party lawmaker, died in Monday’s violence, police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. President Rajapaksa imposed a countrywide curfew on May 9 which lasted till May 11

For more than a month, protests have spread across the country, drawing people across ethnicities, religions and class. For the first time middle-class Sri Lankans also took to the streets in large numbers, marking a dramatic revolt by many former Rajapaksa supporters, some of whom have spent weeks protesting outside the president’s office.

The protests underscored a dramatic fall from favor of the Rajapaksas, Sri Lanka’s most powerful political dynasty for decades. The brothers were once hailed as heroes by many of the island’s Buddhist-Sinhalese majority for ending the country’s 30-year civil war, and despite accusations of war atrocities, were firmly entrenched at the top of Sri Lankan politics until now.

The prime minister’s resignation comes as the country’s economy has swiftly unraveled in recent weeks. Imports of everything from milk to fuel have plunged, spawning dire food shortages and rolling power cuts. People have been forced to stand in lines for hours to buy essentials.

(With inputs from AP)