A day after protesters stormed Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office in Colombo demanding his resignation, military personnel were seen guarding his office and specifically the Prime Minister's chair.
In a video shared by news agency ANI, the Prime Minister's office appears to be heavily guarded with multiple security personnel stationed inside it and around the Prime Minister's chair.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was named the acting President after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to Maldives promising to resign.
On the same day, in a televised statement Wickremesinghe said he had instructed the military and police to do "what is necessary to restore order". But armed security personnel stood by in the grounds of his office as protesters, some holding national flags, milled and took pictures.
Read more: What we know so far about the Sri Lankan crisis in 10 points
On Thursday, Sri Lanka's anti-government demonstrators said they were ending their occupation of official buildings, as they vowed to press on with their bid to bring down Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe.
"We are peacefully withdrawing from the Presidential Palace, the Presidential Secretariat and the Prime Minister's Office with immediate effect, but will continue our struggle," a spokeswoman for the protesters said.
A top Buddhist monk supporting the campaign had earlier called for the more than 200-years-old presidential palace to be handed back to authorities and ensure its valuable art and artefacts were preserved.
"This building is a national treasure and it should be protected," monk Omalpe Sobitha told reporters. "There must be a proper audit and the property given back to the state."
(With inputs from AFP)
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