Sri Lanka imposes weekend curfew amid growing unrest
Zee News
Curfew has been imposed in Sri Lanka from 6 p.m. (1230 GMT) on Saturday to 6 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Monday amid protests.
Colombo: Sri Lanka`s government imposed a weekend curfew on Saturday even as hundreds of lawyers urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to revoke a state of emergency to ensure that freedom of speech and peaceful assembly are respected under the country`s economic crisis.
"Under the powers given to the president, curfew has been imposed countrywide from 6 p.m. (1230 GMT) on Saturday to 6 a.m. (0030 GMT) on Monday," the government`s information department said in a statement.
Rajapaksa on Friday invoked stringent laws to tackle growing unrest in the unprecedented crisis. In the past, a state of emergency order allowed the military to arrest and detain suspects without warrants.
The current restrictions were not immediately clear, said a rights` lawyer.
Bhavani Fonseka, a senior researcher at the nonprofit Colombo Centre for Policy Alternatives rights group said regulations defining the president`s emergency powers have yet to be issued.
