Colombo: Police in Sri Lanka have launched extensive investigations into the involvement of some politicians who allegedly encouraged some protesters to oust the government by occupying Parliament and preventing a vote to elect a new President in July, a newspaper reported on Friday.
Highly placed sources told the Daily Mirror that these politicians had even brokered talks with the parties involved and that investigations were being carried out into their actions.
The Mirror said it learned that despite reports that last week’s gazette declaring high-security zones in Colombo will be reversed, the government will brief the Supreme Court in the coming days why the security zones are required and why the sites listed need to be protected.
According to the daily, a group posing themselves as protesters was to surround and take over Parliament to prevent the MPs from electing a new President following the departure of then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka in the wake of mass protests.
Investigators were informed that the group had also planned to surround the Supreme Court.
It was based on this information that the security authorities recommended the setting up of HSZS in several key areas including the Supreme Court.
However, as the Supreme Court had not been consulted, the authorities will now seek its advice over the establishment of the high security zoens to ensure an unhindered administration, the Mirror said.
Some of the areas declared as high security zone by President Ranil Wickremesinghe include the Parliament, Supreme Court, High Court Colombo, Magistrate Court Colombo and Attorney General’s Department, Temple Trees, Presidential Secretariat, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Army Headquarters.
