A protest campaign targeting investigators of the Easter Sunday attacks entered a second day opposite the Fort Railway Station on Monday, but the demonstration drew a thin crowd in daylight hours and the political figures who launched it the previous night were absent by mid-morning, NewsFirst reported.
The satyagraha, launched by opposition parties on Sunday evening after the police clearance of an earlier Salley-supporter tent at the same site, is aimed at applying pressure for the release of former State Intelligence Chief, retired Major General Suresh Salley, who remains detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in connection with the Easter Sunday investigation that has now claimed 278 lives in its scope.
Only a small group of protesters remained at the site from late Sunday night into Monday afternoon, NewsFirst said. By around 10:30 a.m., none of the key political figures who had spearheaded the launch were present.
A tense moment briefly broke out during the day when an individual attempted to express dissenting views at the protest site, leading to a heated exchange with participants before police intervened to de-escalate the situation.
The protest had drawn higher attendance on Sunday night, when former ministers Udaya Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansa, former Parliamentarian Jayantha Samaraweera and former Governor Anuradha Yahampath visited the site around 8:30 p.m. National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa left around 10:15 p.m., while Gammanpila remained until shortly after midnight. Other political figures gradually departed through the evening, NewsFirst reported.
Protesters spent the night singing patriotic songs at the site. The demonstration centres on criticism of officers from the Criminal Investigation Department and the Attorney General’s Department working on the Easter Sunday case — including CID Director Shani Abeysekara, whose removal Salley has set as a condition for ending his hospital-bed hunger strike.
