Sri Lanka troops issued shoot-on-sight orders as homes of politicians vandalised

The Sri Lankan defence ministry on Tuesday ordered troops to shoot on sight people involved in looting or damaging property, a day after protesters targeted the homes of ruling-party politicians, news agency AFP reported.

“Security forces have been ordered to shoot on sight anyone looting public property or causing harm to life,” the ministry said.

The ministry has ordered the tri-forces to open fire on anyone looting public property or causing harm to others, the Daily Mirror newspaper quoted an army spokesman as saying.

Earlier in the day, embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa handed over emergency powers to the military and police allowing the forces to detain people without warrants.

The island nation has witnessed a bout of violence that has left as many as eight people dead and more than 200 injured amid its worst economic crisis since its Independence.

The stunning order come even as Gotabaya Rajapaksa urged people to stop “violence and acts of revenge” against fellow citizens.

The protest against the Rajapaksa government escalated on Monday as government supporters hit protesters with wooden and iron poles. Authorities swiftly deployed armed troops in many parts of the country and imposed a curfew until Wednesday.

Prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had put in his papers amid the nationwide protests but this has failed to bring calm.

A curfew is in force across the island nation after mobs burned down the ancestral home belonging to the ruling Rajapaksa family amid mounting anger at the worst economic crisis.

Protesters even attempted to tear down the gates of Temple Trees, the two-storey colonial-era building that serves as the Lankan PM’s home in the heart of Colombo, where broken glass and discarded footwear littered the surrounding streets on Tuesday, after some of the night’s worst clashes.