Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was allowed to enter Singapore on Thursday on a "private visit," a day after he landed in Maldives after fleeing from Colombo. Interestingly, he arrived in a Saudi airlines flight. He has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any, a Singapore spokesperson said, adding that they generally do not entertain such requests.
Rajapaksa, who enjoys immunity from prosecution while he is president, fled without resigning to avoid the possibility of being arrested by the new government. Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena on Thursday informed Rajapaksa that he should submit his resignation letter at the earliest, or else he will consider removing him from office.
Some media outlets reported that the Speaker's office has received the resignation letter from Rajapaksa. However, there was no official confirmation of that. President Rajapaka's brothers - former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and ex-finance minister Basil Rajapaksa - on Thursday gave an undertaking to the Supreme Court through their lawyers thatthey willnotleave the country until the fundamental rights petition filed against them is heard on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported.
The Army has, meanwhile, said that despite its repeated appeals the "unruly protestingmobs" on Wednesday tried to forcibly enter Parliament complex, harassed and attacked the troops on duty using clubs, iron rods, stones, helmets, etc and snatched TWO T-56 weapons with ammunition rounds and caused injuries to a dozen of Army personnel.
The demonstrators on Thursday decided to vacate some of the administrative buildings, including the President's House and the PM Office, which they have been occupying since April 9 demanding President Rajapaksa's resignation.
