Will Gotabaya be able to return to Sri Lanka? People are angry

Colombo: Sri Lanka is passing through the darkest hours of its history. There is no one in charge, no rule of law, and everything is spiraling into deeper crisis by the minute.

It is at best a headless state with desperate citizens out on the street, protesting against their rulers—the architects of the nation's fall and their suffering.

Most of these biggies that ruled the nation so far have fled, including the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who flew out to Male in Maldives in the dead of the night hours before.

He is transiting in the nation cooling his heels to catch a flight to Singapore—his final destination.

Seeing no end to protesters surging through streets as well as storming into his office, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency.

A curfew is clamped until Thursday morning to stop the unrest.

Protesters turned even more violent after learning that Gotabaya had escaped, and they turned the ire on the Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, who chose to quell the unrest with force.

He accused the protesters in a statement of trying to stop parliamentary process, and added the "we" must respect the Constitution.

In the thick of their street fights with police earlier in the day, a youth died in tear gas attack as the police tried to disperse a large group of protesters who had gathered near the PMO.

By late evening, the protesters had taken control of the PMO premises on Flower Road in Colombo, The Indian Express reported from Colombo.

Images from Colombo show jean-clad youths streaming in the streets and some of them stormed into the public broadcaster Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation in the afternoon.

The broadcaster suspended the transmission after the protesters demanded to showcase only news related to "anti-government protests".

However, protesters got 15 minutes to speak directly to viewers. Rupavahini resumed broadcasting later.

Indian Express reported witnessing groups of people milling around the lawns of Prime Minister's Office and they went and in came out of PMO unchecked by security officials. The lawns were muddy and littered with garbage.

President Gotabaya found himself completely cornered by the protest against him; however he was not ready to step down, instead chose to flee the nation in the dead of the night.

After the Ministry of Defence approved an aircraft for his trip, Gotabaya, 73, his wife Ioma and a bodyguard were onboard heading towards Male in Maldives.

He will leave Male in a few hours to reach his final destination, Singapore, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, protests broke out in the Maldives against the government for "harbouring" Rajapaksa.

The protesters asked Maldives President Ibrahim Solih to Rajapaksa back to Sri Lanka.

A Maldives government official reportedly said Rajapaksa was only "transiting" there, before moving to another destination.

The situation in Sri Lanka is becoming another example of fallouts in bad governing and mismanagement.

The economic peril has thrown the nation out of gear, and into bottomless crisis that no other nation in recent times faced.

It is not yet predictable if the nation will any time soon swing back to normalcy and people will rest their hope in the hands of a wise administration.

It seems people have lost trust in the politicians and their rudderless administration steeped in corruption and cronyism.

The chaos that the nation witnessing today comes from this frustration coupled with real-life issues: they have very little essential items to rely

There is no fuel to run their vehicles and business, and they know that the country's buying power is at its lowest.

The know only too well that the government has no working roadmap to save them—no agencies out there to hear their SOS calls, so they protest.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that a new President is likely to be elected on July 20, the nominations for which will be filed on July.