UPDATE - Sri Lanka imposes curfew until Monday morning

UPDATES WITH IMPOSITION OF CURFEW, EU DELEGATION STATEMENT

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - The Sri Lankan government on Saturday imposed a 36-hour curfew across the island nation, a government statement said.

The curfew has been imposed from 6:00 p.m. local time on Saturday to 6:00 a.m. local time on Monday, according to the statement.

The curfew came after the president on Friday night declared a nationwide state of emergency amid protests over the ongoing economic crisis in the island nation.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced the emergency a day after a huge crowd gathered outside his home and demanded his resignation.

Rajapaksa said that the state of emergency is necessary "in the interests of public security, the protection of public order, and to maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community."

On Thursday night, a large number of protesters had gathered outside the private residence of the president in Colombo. Rajapaksa blamed “organized extremists” for staging the protest.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd and arrested a large number of protesters, according to local media.

Protesters claim that the Rajapaksa administration's improper practices caused the country’s foreign exchange reserves to deplete rapidly, severely impacting essential imports and leading to price increases for staple foods and shortages of essential items such as cooking gas and fuel.

The UN representative in the country Hanaa Singer-Hamdy on Friday called for restraint from all groups. "We are monitoring developments and are concerned by reports of violence in #SriLanka," she said on Twitter.

On Saturday, the EU delegation in Sri Lanka said that it continues to follow the situation closely.

"Concerned by the state of emergency, EU strongly urges Sri Lankan authorities to safeguard democratic rights of all citizens, including right to free assembly and dissent, which has to be peaceful. Challenging times for Sri Lankan people- EU continues to follow situation closely," it said on Twitter.

Sri Lanka has been reeling from the worst economic crisis, which has resulted in 13-hour-long rolling blackouts, and a shortage of fuel, food, and medicines supply.

The country, which needs to repay an estimated $7.3 billion in domestic and foreign loans over the next 12 months, was left with reserves of $2.31 billion as of February and may go bankrupt.