Protesting medical students tear-gassed in Colombo

UPDATE (5:32 PM): Protesting medical students have been tear-gassed for a second time near the Green Path in Colombo.

Police have fired tear gas and water cannons in attempts to disperse protesting medical students in Colombo.

Accordingly, tear gas and water cannons were fired near the Nelum Pokuna in Colombo by the police in an attempt to disperse a protest launched by the Medical Faculty Students’ Action Committee.

It was reported earlier that the Green Path was closed for traffic from Nelum Pokuna to the Public Library in Colombo.

The Medical Faculty Students’ Action Committee took to the roads this afternoon (27 Oct.) from the Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo, accusing the government of attempting to destroy free education in the country by conspiring with private institutions, namely Lyceum Campus, NSBM Green University, Gateway Graduate School and the Kotelawala Defence University.

They also accused the government of being involved in a conspiracy to further destroy Sri Lanka’s free healthcare system by imposing allowance cuts, and urged that the issues faced  by the medical faculty of the Universities of Moratuwa, Wayamba and Sabaragamuwa be resolved immediately.