Police deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse members of the teacher-principal trade unions protesting at Lotus Roundabout in Colombo, according to an Ada Derana reporter.
The unions engaged in a nationwide strike, taking sick leave today (26), and initiated a protest march from the Colombo Fort railway station.
Earlier, the Colombo Fort Magistrate’s Court issued an order preventing key union leaders, including Ceylon Teachers’ Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin and Ven. Ulapane Sumangala Thero, along with eight others, from staging demonstrations that would inconvenience the public along Galle Road, NSA Roundabout, and several other roads in Colombo. The order also barred them from entering the premises of the Finance Ministry, President’s Secretariat, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and President’s House.