Sri Lanka: MP suspected of suicide after shooting dead 2 people

According to the radio Al-Jazeera, after a chaotic day at Sri Lanka 5 people were killed, including a member of the ruling party’s parliament; while Channel New Asia reported that another 180 people were injured.

Al-Jazeera The ruling party member, 57-year-old MP Amarakeerthi Athukorala, shot dead two people while surrounded by a crowd in Nittambuwa, about 40 kilometers from the capital Colombo. A video clip CCTV Footage shows the congressman and his security staff fleeing into a building. When the police found them, they were dead. Al-Jazeera It is not currently possible to independently verify the circumstances of this congressman’s death.

Supporters of Sri Lanka’s ruling party attack an anti-government protester in Colombo – Photo: REUTERS

Meanwhile, the sheet Times of India Quoting residents, MP Amarakeerthi Athukorala committed suicide with a pistol while hiding. At that time, angry crowds of thousands surrounded the building.

Tensions are escalating rapidly across the island nation. As described by Al-Jazeerapeople burned property affiliated with the ruling party across the country, storming into the homes of Rajapaksa loyalists despite the state of emergency and the curfew imposed.

The house of Saman Lal Fernando, mayor of Moratuwa, on the outskirts of Colombo, caught fire hours after he caught eight buses carrying workers to show his support for the Rajapaksa family. The homes of three ministers and three other parliamentarians, and a tourist hotel owned by the children of Prime Minister Rajapaksa also caught fire.

Sri Lankan police also said mobs attacked and razed the controversial Rajapakska clan museum, located in the family’s ancestral village in the south of the island.

Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Defense – retired major general Kamal Gunaratne – urged people to calm down; while a number of religious leaders met with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa – the brother of the recently resigned prime minister – and urged measures to stabilize the country, calling for the appointment of a neutral prime minister.

Sri Lanka has experienced many months of severe crisis, with power cuts for more than 20 hours a day, shortages of food, medicine and fuel. On May 9, peaceful protests turned violent. Police fired tear gas and sprayed water cannon into the crowd. The curfew was declared immediately in the capital Colombo, then extended to the entire country.