COLOMBO • Police arrested Sri Lanka's sacked petroleum minister yesterday, a day after a man was killed when bodyguards opened fire to rescue the minister from a group loyal to the President.
Mr Arjuna Ranatunga, captain of Sri Lanka's 1996 cricket World Cup winning side and an ally of ousted prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, was taken in after trade unions accused him of ordering the shooting.
Sunday's shooting was the first since President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Mr Wickremesinghe, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said Mr Ranatunga was arrested following complaints from petroleum unions that it was the minister who had ordered the shooting. Unions went on strike yesterday in protest over the shooting, sparking long queues for fuel at petrol stations.
Mr Ranatunga's office said hundreds of people gathered at the ministry on Sunday when the minister appeared, beating his staff and trying to take him hostage.
"When they tried to break open his office door and capture him, the Special Task Force commandos came to rescue him," spokesman Thameera Manju told Agence France-Presse.
One of Mr Ranatunga's bodyguards, a policeman, opened fire. Three people were struck and a 34-year-old man died in hospital on Sunday night. The bodyguard was arrested on Sunday.
President Sirisena last Saturday declared that the Cabinet had been dissolved with the appointment of Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister the day before. Mr Rajapaksa was formerly president.
Since then, members of trade unions linked to Mr Rajapaksa have blocked ministers of the old Cabinet, including Mr Ranatunga, from entering their ministries.
The President's media division said yesterday Mr Sirisena has also appointed Mr Rajapaksa as finance minister, with several other legislators also named to the Cabinet.
In his first statement since his controversial elevation, Mr Rajapaksa yesterday said he was given the job because his predecessor's party "engaged in a quest to sell off valuable state assets and enterprises to foreign companies".
"I was aware that at this moment of national peril, the people expected our leadership and protection," Mr Rajapaksa said. "Hence, I accepted the invitation."
Mr Wickremesinghe has demanded that Parliament be allowed to choose between the two rivals to run the country's government amid warnings that the constitutional crisis could become a "bloodbath".
And Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya said: "We should settle this through Parliament, but if we take it out to the streets, there will be a huge bloodbath."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
