Despite pleas from terrified parents, children at a chess class were ruthlessly tear gassed by police who were under orders to suppress an Opposition protest rally at the Town Hall in Colombo on Tuesday afternoon.
The frightened children both boys and girls between the ages of six and eight screamed, cried and ran for cover at the Public Library where the chess session was being held while their parents faced the brunt of the tear gas unleash by frenzied policemen who disregarded a frantic call to stop the mayhem.
“We told the police that there are no political protesters but little children playing chess but they did not care and went about firing the canisters,” said a disgruntled parent.
The protest rally attended by thousands was led by Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and several of his party Parliamentarians demanding the government hold an election and uphold democracy.
The protests coincided with agitated University students from the Kelaniya campus blocking the Colombo-Kandy highway in protest against an invitation to President Ranil Wickremasinghe to attend an impending function at their university.
