[ad_1]
COLOMBO • Police arrested Sri Lankan oil minister sacked yesterday, a day after a man's murder when bodyguards opened fire to rescue the minister from a group loyal to the president.
Mr. Arjuna Ranatunga, captain of the Sri Lankan World Cup cricket team in 1996 and ally of the deposed Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was arrested after trade unions accused him of 39, ordered the shooting.
Sunday's shooting was the first of its kind since President Maithripala Sirisena fired Mr Wickremesinghe, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said Ranatunga had been arrested following complaints from oil industry unions that the minister had ordered the shooting. The unions went on strike yesterday to protest the shooting, causing long queues for fuel at the service stations.
Mr. Ranatunga's office said that hundreds of people gathered at the ministry Sunday when the minister arrived, hitting his staff and trying to take him hostage.
"When they tried to open the door of his office and capture him, Special Task Force commandos came to rescue him," spokesman Thameera told Agence France-Presse. Manju.
One of Mr. Ranatunga's bodyguards, a police officer, opened fire. Three people were affected and a 34-year-old man died at the hospital Sunday night. The bodyguard was arrested on Sunday.
President Sirisena said last Saturday that the Cabinet had been dissolved with the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister the day before. Mr. Rajapaksa was previously president.
Since then, union members linked to Rajapaksa have prevented ministers from the former Cabinet, including Mr. Ranatunga, from entering their ministries.
The president's press division said yesterday that Sirisena had also appointed Rajapaksa as finance minister, and several other lawmakers had also been appointed to cabinet.
In his first statement since his controversial rise, Rajapaksa said yesterday that the post had been awarded to him because his predecessor's party had "been engaged in an attempt to sell public assets and". 39, value companies to foreign companies ".
"I was aware that in this moment of national danger, the people were waiting for our leadership and our protection," Rajapaksa said. "I therefore accepted the invitation."
Wickremesinghe called for Parliament to be allowed to choose between the two rivals to lead the country's government when the constitutional crisis could become a "bloodbath".
And Parliament Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said: "We should settle this through Parliament, but if we take it out on the street, there will be a huge bloodbath."
REUTERS, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
[ad_2]Source link
