'The siege is over': Sanath Jayasuriya joins anti-govt protests, Sangakkara & Jayawardene also extend support

Former Sri Lankan cricket team captain Sanath Jayasuriya joined the protests against the Sri Lankan government in the country on Saturday (July 09). Thousands of protests flooded Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa's residence in Colombo on Saturday forcing him to flee. The protestors barged into his house demanding his resignation from the post.

In what was one of the biggest anti-government protests in the country, thousands of people broke police barricades before storming into Rajapaksa's residence. Some protestors were also seen taking a dip in his pool in videos that surfaced on social media.

Sri Lanka has been facing an unrest for quite a while now amid the country's worst financial crisis in decades. Earlier this year, Sri Lankan people faced an acute shortage of essential supplies, food and regular power cuts due to a financial crisis in the country.

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Former Sri Lanka skipper Jayasuriya was spotted joining the protests in Colombo on Saturday as he also took to Twitter to assert he will always stand with the people of the country. Jayasuriya also demanded the president's resignation and said the people of the country will celebrate victory soon.

"I always stand with the People of Sri Lanka. And will celebrate victory soon. This should be continued without any violation," Jayasuriya said in a tweet. "The siege is over. Your bastion has fallen. Aragalaya and peoples power has won. Please have the dignity to resign now," he added in another.

Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene also extended their support to the Sri Lankan public. Sangakkara took to Twitter to share a video of the protests and wrote - "This is our future."

"We as a country have changed direction and nothing can change that…people have spoken," tweeted Jayawardene.

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Sri Lankan public has been demanding Rajapaksa's resignation since March this year as he had been using the President's House as his residence and office. He reportedly had left his residence before the protests began in Colombo on Saturday and was spotted fleeing.

While his whereabouts are not known, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Saturday announced that he will step down from his post. As per reports, Wickremesinghe has decided to resign as the Prime Minister of the island nation to make way for an all-party government to assume power in the nation.