Sri Lanka crisis: Shooting incident hits fuel supply; to be restored by tomorrow

Colombo, Oct 30: The political crisis that unfolded in Sri Lanka last week has hit the country's fuel supply and it was assured that normalcy would be restored by Wednesday, October 31, evening.

The fuel supply across Sri Lanka came to a halt following the death of a man and injury to two others when one of the bodyguards of former petroleum minister Arjuna Ranatunga opened fire at a group of protesters at Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) premises in Dematagoda in Colombo suburbs on Sunday (October 28) evening.

According to a report in the island-nation's Daily Mirror, Ceylon Petroleum Private Bowser Owners' Association (CPPBOA) said on Monday, October 29, that fuel supply would be restored by Wednesday.

The Mirror also reported that CPPBOA Secretary Shantha Silva said the CPC had started issuing fuel around 6 pm on Monday.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror CPPBOA Secretary Shantha Silva said the CPC had started issuing fuel yesterday at 6.00 p.m. A strike called by the trade union following the shooting incident disrupted the supply process, Silva said.

The trade union called off the strike on Monday following the arrest of Ranatunga, a former cricketer, though he got bail later. Ranatunga is from the United National Party of Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was sacked as the prime minister by President Maithripala Sirisena for allegedly betraying the expectations of the people and replaced by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.