SL police fire tear gas to disperse protest

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka police fired tear gas and water cannon on a small protest on Thursday to break up the first demonstration since the crisis-hit island nation lifted a state of emergency.

An unprecedented economic collapse has sparked often huge anti-government rallies this year after months of hardship caused by shortages of essential goods, rolling blackouts and spiralling inflation.

The government has curbed dissent by imposing a state of emergency giving security forces sweeping detention powers, but the ordinance lapsed overnight. Several hundred students attempted to march to the city centre in Colombo for a rally outside the railway station before they were blocked and dispersed by officers armed with batons and riot shields. A police official told AFP that Wasantha Mudalige, leader of the Inter-University Student Federation, was among six people taken into custody.