SL President asked to resign over violence

Colombo, May 11 (UNI) The Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) has demanded the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Inspector General of Police C.D. Wickremaratne for failing to prevent unprovoked attacks on people campaigning against the government.
The Island newspaper on Wednesday quoted the FUTA as alleging that former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his office were complicit in Monday’s violence when ruling party supporters brutally attacked in Colombo scores of people seeking the resignation of the President and Prime Minister.
The assaults triggered violent counter-attacks as those ranged against the government assaulted SLPP leaders and their offices and houses, setting fire to many of them. A total of eight people were killed and more than 200 injured in both rounds of violence.
Although he has now rendered his resignation, we demand that Mahinda Rajapaksa should explain to the people why he invited to his office on Monday his supporters who later unleashed terrible violence.
“The FUTA calls upon the President and the Inspector General of Police also to resign immediately in recognition of their failure to prevent this violence.”
“Sri Lanka is once again at a breaking point,” it said.
Widespread shortages sparked by the island nation’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948 has triggered weeks of dominantly peaceful protests in Colombo and elsewhere demanding the resignation of both the President and all his close aides.