It comes close on the heels of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declaring a public emergency amid protests over a severe shortage of essential supplies.
Many economists say the crisis has been exacerbated by government mismanagement, years of accumulated borrowing, unfair tax cuts and the impact of Covid on the economy.
Here are the latest developments from the island nation as it grapples with the worst economic crisis in its modern history:
36 hours curfew from Saturday evening
Sri Lanka’s police announced a 36-hour curfew on Saturday to quell planned large-scale anti-government protests against growing shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
Police said the curfew will come into effect from 6 pm on Saturday and will be lifted at 6 am on Monday.
On Friday, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa imposed a state of emergency after a violent attempt to storm his home.
He said the state of emergency was necessary to protect public order and maintain essential supplies and services.
the protest turned violent
Security forces were deployed in the Sri Lankan capital on Friday after protesters tried to storm the president’s house over the country’s worst economic crisis since independence.
Police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters after they demolished a steel barricade near the president’s residence.
Police in Colombo said they arrested 45 people following Thursday night’s unrest, in which one person was seriously injured.
Police and military presence was beefed up around the city, with burnt debris from a bus still blocking the way to the home of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Shops opened under tight security in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Saturday – the first day after a state of emergency was declared.
Acute energy crisis in the island nation
The island nation of 22 million people is battling a rolling blackout for 13 hours a day as the government scrambles to secure foreign currency to pay for fuel imports.
Officials said more than 40 percent of Sri Lanka’s electricity is generated from hydro, but most of the reservoirs were running dangerously low because it hadn’t rained.
Most of the electricity generation comes from coal and oil. Both are imported but the supply is short as the country does not have enough foreign exchange to pay for the supplies.
A ship carrying 5,500 metric tons of cooking gas had to leave Sri Lankan waters because it could not procure $4.9 million from local banks to pay for it as ordered by the company.
The government has said that it is seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund while seeking fresh loans from India and China.
Officials from the state fuel unit, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), said the 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel supplied by India would ease the ongoing power cuts.
India denies reports of sending troops to Sri Lanka
The Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka denied reports of India sending its troops to Sri Lanka and termed the reports as “completely baseless”.
“The High Commission strongly denies false and completely baseless reports in a section of the media that India is sending its troops to Sri Lanka,” a mission statement said.
It said, “The High Commission also condemns such irresponsible reporting and hopes that those concerned will desist from spreading rumours.”
India helps
India may consider a request for immediate relief through an airlift if Colombo makes the request, Gopal Baglay, India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, told the Times of India in an exclusive interview.
Fuel Line of Credit (LoC) of $500 million is already under implementation, and Sri Lankan has already received some supplies. Baglay said three consignments have already been delivered, with the fourth reaching Colombo on Saturday.
In the first major food aid to the country since Colombo got a credit line from New Delhi, Indian traders have started loading 40,000 tonnes of rice.
India on Saturday delivered another 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel to Sri Lanka. India has supplied about 200,000 metric tonnes of fuel to the island nation in the last 50 days.
‘Social media activist kidnapped’
A Sri Lankan man on Saturday alleged that his son, a social media activist, was abducted by the police.
Anuruddha Bandara’s father told that someone took his son from North Colombo police station in Modera on Friday night.
He said that he had questioned the police station concerned, in which he denied that he was in their custody.
On a complaint lodged by the Young Journalists’ Association with the Human Rights Commission, it has been revealed that the police are interrogating Bandara elsewhere.
His questioning came ahead of a planned civil society protest on Sunday, which has been organized through social media to spark nationwide protests against the government’s handling of the ongoing economic crisis.