{"id":80709,"date":"2018-09-05T02:41:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T09:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=80709"},"modified":"2018-09-05T02:41:16","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T09:41:16","slug":"sri-lankas-opposition-protest-cripples-colombo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/09\/05\/sri-lankas-opposition-protest-cripples-colombo\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s opposition protest cripples Colombo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"social-sharethis-post\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"clearfix\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy NewsIn.Asia<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"clearfix\">Colombo, Sept 5 (newsin.asia) \u2013 Sri Lankan MPs, loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapakse, on Wednesday prepared to take part in a massive protest rally in capital Colombo, with businesses, shops and schools closing by noon, resulting in Colombo coming to a virtual halt.<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>The protest titled \u2018Janabalaya Colombata\u2019 is spearheaded by Rajapakse\u2019s eldest son and MP, Namal Rajapakse.<\/p>\n<div class=\"google-auto-placed ap_container\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Sri Lanka\u2019s opposition protest cripples Colombo\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsin.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG-20180904-WA0018.jpg?fit=701%2C526&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Sri Lanka\u2019s opposition protest cripples Colombo\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The JO expects over 200,000 protesters from all across the country to take part in the rally, which will be held at Fort, the heart of Colombo\u2019s business hub.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a statement on Wednesday that September 5th was not a public holiday. He said many people including school children had arrived in the city and the government could not let them be affected by the protest.<\/p>\n<p>The usual busy roads of Colombo remained silent and many schools closed by 12 noon ahead of the protest which was set to begin at 2pm. Despite an earlier statement by the JO that the protest would end at 7pm, MP Udaya Gammanpila said protesters would sit through the night into Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Police said that over 5000 additional police officers had been deployed across the city to maintain law and order. Riot police, the STF and heavy military trucks were seen roaming around Colombo since early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>The JO, had for months been preparing for the protest which is being held against the existing high cost of living, economic instability, the government\u2019s policies etc.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, Sept 5 (newsin.asia) \u2013 Sri Lankan MPs, loyal to former President Mahinda Rajapakse, on Wednesday prepared to take part in a massive protest rally in capital Colombo, with businesses, shops and schools closing by noon, resulting in Colombo coming to a virtual halt. The protest titled \u2018Janabalaya Colombata\u2019 is spearheaded by Rajapakse\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}