Hours before the announcement of the withdrawal, the police had pushed back the protesters who tried to enter the Parliament.
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Sri Lankan protesters will leave public buildings that have been occupied for several days. “We peacefully withdraw from the presidential palace, the presidential secretariat and the offices of the Prime Minister with immediate effect, but we will continue our fight”said a spokeswoman, Thursday, July 14.
Hours before the announcement of the withdrawal, the police had pushed back the protesters who tried to enter the Parliament. The protesting crowd invaded the offices of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday after doing the same on Saturday with the palace of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, forcing him to flee abroad.
Nearly 85 people were injured in the clashes and one man died of tear gas suffocation. Ranil Wickremesinghe, appointed interim president by the fleeing head of state, had called for the evacuation of public buildings and ordered the police to do “the necessary to restore order”.
A Buddhist cleric supporting the movement had called on Thursday for the return of the presidential palace, a building over 200 years old, to preserve the valuables therein. “This building is a national treasure and it must be protected”the monk Omalpe Sobitha told reporters.