To salvage the Presidential Secretariat and ‘Gate Zero’ 

• Hundreds of armed troops launch brutal attack on peaceful protesters in midnight mayhem
• The tents erected by the protesters had been destroyed by the armed forces that tried to remove the occupying protesters

 By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

Even before 24 hours could last from the swearing in ceremony of Sri Lanka’s eighth Executive President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country’s mass agitation site GotaGoGama came under a midnight siege on Thursday, where hundreds of armed troops launched an operation to clear the protesters in a bid to salvage the Presidential Secretariat and its main entrance ‘Gate Zero’.   

The main struggle site was somewhat witnessing its final activities on Thursday night as the protesting groups were in agreement to officially hand their symbolic agitation site of the Presidential Secretariat building and its main entrance taken over about 105 days ago on April 09th demanding former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step-down, back to the authorities by yesterday afternoon.   

Unusual gathering of security forces personnel including the police since Thursday late evening around the GotaGoGama (GGG) area in the Galle Face had converted into a sudden midnight siege around 1.30a.m., where hundreds of army and air force riot squads started to pour in from nowhere.   

Peaceful protesters who felt extremely threatened by this unexpected advancement of troops started airing live feeds of the incident that alerted many concerned parties and the media through Facebook, Messenger, YouTube and WhatsApp that lasted till about 5.30a.m. International media like Al Jazeera was updating with Colombo’s latest live feeds about the developing scenario.   

The videos depicted how the armed troops were coming from the Lotus Road end and forcing towards the GotaGoGama Village taking the entire Presidential Secretariat premises area including its main entrance the ‘Gate Zero’ under its control.   

• The videos depicted how the armed troops were coming from the Lotus Road end and forcing towards the GotaGoGama Village

The tents erected by the protesters in front of the Secretariat premises along the shoreline and another line of tents stationed on the right side along the estuary of the Beira Lake had been destroyed by the armed forces that tried to remove the occupying protesters.   

The live footages even showed how the troops were attacking both the protesters and the media personnel who were present covering the incident. At least six local journalists including two working for the BBC and Al Jazeera had been reported wounded in the attacks. Two other local journalists are currently being treated at the Colombo National Hospital.   

pic by kushan pathiraja