Sri Lanka deploys military ahead of protester’s funeral

Sri Lanka called out the military on Thursday to strengthen safety beforehand of a funeral for the first person killed currently, after weeks of running anti-government protests within the island state.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered the three-day deployment to maintain order in the principal metropolis of Rambukkana, where police dispersed an indication with stay rounds and tear fuel on Tuesday.

A 42 year- man was shot lifeless in Tuesday’s melee and nearly 30 others have been wounded.

“To ensure there are no incidents during and after the burial, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa invoked public security provisions,” Sri Lanka’s information department said in a statement.

The military “will assist the police in maintaining public order” until Saturday, it added.

Police violently broke up the Rambukkana protest after a crowd blocked a railway line and highway connecting the capital Colombo with the central city of Kandy to protest oil shortages and high prices.

A curfew imposed in Rambukkana was lifted on Thursday, but heavily armed police were seen patrolling the streets.

A judicial inquiry into the shooting is underway.

Sri Lanka is struggling with its maximum painful economic downturn on account that 1948, with months of prolonged blackouts and acute shortages of meals, gasoline, and other essentials inflicting sizable misery.

Protesters have demanded Rajapaksa step down over the authorities’ mismanagement of the disaster, and a huge crowd has been camped outdoor his seafront workplace in Colombo on the grounds that April 9 to name for his resignation.