The Sri Lankan government on Saturday imposed a 36-hour curfew as a nationwide public emergency has been enforced ahead of a planned anti-government rally over the worst economic crisis in the island nation that has hit the common man badly.
The island wide curfew has been imposed with effect from 6 pm Saturday to 6 am Monday (April 4), the information department said.President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has given the directive under the Public Security Ordinance regulations, it said.The move came as the island nation braced for country-wide protests on Sunday against the government’s poor handling of the ongoing economic crisis where people currently endure long hours of power outages and scarcity of essentials. The imposition of curfew would prevent citizens from holding protests.
President Rajapaksa issued a special gazette notification late on Friday night, declaring a public emergency in Sri Lanka with immediate effect from April 1.In the gazette, the President states: “Whereas I am of the opinion that by reason of a public emergency in Sri Lanka it is expedient to do so in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community”.Commenting on the emergency, independent think-tank Centre for Policy Alternatives said that “regulations may impose restrictions on certain fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution” one of them would be among others: the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, movement, occupation, religion, culture and language.Lawyers commented that the regulations gave the police sweeping powers to arrest anyone for unlawful assembly.The regulations must be approved in Parliament every 30 days from their imposition.The declaration came at the same time as the court ordered bail to a section of the protesters arrested for the demonstration opposite Rajapaksa’s private residence on Thursday.
