Sri Lankan military denies arrival of Indian troops to quell protest

Colombo: Alongside going under economic crisis, Sri Lanka is facing civil unrest across the nation.

Police are struggling to contain the protest against the Island administration over lack of food and basic needs.

Adding to it there were speculations on social media that Indian troops entered the island to quell the protest.

Both Sri Lankan military and Indian High Commission denied any military intervention from India.

Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne on Saturday rubbished the reports of the arrival of Indian troops.

He also said that fake news carrying official photographs of 2021's friendly India-Sri Lanka joint military exercise ' Mitra Shakti' were circulated on social media.

The Defence Secretary reportedly expressed confidence in Sri Lanka's tri-forces to facing any situation ensuring security, and he asked people to be wary of misinformation.

The Indian High Commission in a statement denied what it said "blatantly false and completely baseless reports", regarding Indian military's arrival in Sri Lanka.

The island administration, meanwhile, clamped 36-hour long curfew from Saturday ahead of Sunday's nation-wide protest.

A gazette issued yesterday prohibited people from coming out onto public road, park, railways, sea shores or other public places during curfew between Saturday 6 pm to Monday 6 am.

Hours before curfew was clamped, people came out to streets demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign.

On Thursday evening a public protest near the President's house turned violent with police attacking people and later arrested more than 50 of them, IANS reported.

Both the police personnel and people suffered injuries and people set ablaze police squad cars and buses

.