No Sri Lankan politician fled to India, says high commission

Taking to Twitter, the Colombo-based high commission ‘strongly denied’ such reports which, it also said, lacked 'any truth or substance.'

The Colombo-based Indian high commission on Tuesday dismissed 'rumours circulating on social media' that ‘certain Sri Lankan politicians and their kin’ have escaped to India. “High Commission has recently noticed rumours circulating in sections of media & social media that certain political persons and their families have fled to India,” it said in a tweet.

A Sri Lankan man reacts to tear gas as he walks past the vandalized site of anti-government protests outside president's office in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, May 9, 2022.. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

“These are fake and blatantly false reports, devoid of any truth or substance, High Commission strongly denies them,” the tweet further said.

It was not immediately known which ‘political persons’ the high commission referred to in its tweet. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the now-former prime minister of the island nation who resigned from the post a day ago, is reportedly holed up in a naval base in the southern town of Trincomalee.

On Sunday, Mahinda, the older brother of the country's embattled President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was evacuated by the military from his official residence in Colombo. The development came after the residence was stormed by some agitators who were enraged after some anti-government protesters were, earlier that day, viciously assaulted by government supporters during a demonstration in the metropolis.

Meanwhile, Mahinda's son and former minister Namal Rajapaksa said his father will not leave the country.

Also, as unrest continued for a second straight day after the mostly peaceful protests took an extremely violent turn following the Colombo clashes, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa again appealed for peace. “All efforts will be made to restore political stability through consensus, within constitutional mandate & to resolve economic crisis,” the 69-year-old leader said on Twitter. 

Sri Lanka is currently battling its worst economic crisis since 1948, when it won freedom from British rule. Protests began in the second week of April and soon spread to the length and breadth of the island, which is home to 22 million people.