Rajapaksa 'Loyalist' Gunawardena Sworn In as Sri Lankan PM While Military Raid Protestors' Camp

Ranil Wickremesinghe, the six-time prime minister, was sworn-in as president on Thursday having received the backing of Mahinda Rajapaksa's SLLP. The president warned protestors of severe repercussions if they continued "to suppress the aspirations of the silent majority clamoring for a change in the political system".

On Friday morning, Dinesh Gunawardena, a parliamentarian from Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), was appointed the new Prime Minister of crisis-stricken Sri Lanka in the presence of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The previous cabinet that functioned under Gotabaya Rajapaksa will continue working for some days until a consensus is reached to form a national government.

Talks on a national government will take place once the parliament session convenes on 27 July.

Gunawardena, who served as a cabinet minister under both the Mahinda and the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government, is known as a strong Rajapaksa loyalist.

The swearing in ceremony of the new government, however, was preceded by a military raid at the Galle Face protest camp in which more than 10 people were reportedly injured.

At least nine people had also been arrested on the site occupied by protestors for months where police described the prevailing mood as "tense".

Video footage emerged on social media showing police and soldiers destroying tents at the adjacent GotaGoGama protest site and cordoning off the area in the early morning.

"After the announcement that the protestors were planning to hand over the Presidential Secretariat to the government on 22 July at 2.00pm, in the early hours of that day - just after 1.00am - large numbers of armed forces cordoned off GotaGoGama from all sides and started attacking the unarmed protestors," a statement by the protest leaders said.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka dubbed the pre-dawn military actions against protestors a "black day", which coincides with the first day in office of the new President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The military action started hours after the anti-government protestors withdrew from the camp in front of Temple Trees, the prime minister's official residence. Protestors had also announced their intention to vacate the Presidential Secretariat on Friday.

The anti-government protestors, who took to the streets over the economic crisis earlier this year, agreed to give time to Wickremesinghe, whom they suspect of being no different from Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the island nation on 13 July.

Wickremesinghe warned on Wednesday that his government would deal firmly with protestors.

"We will not allow a minority of protestors to suppress the aspirations of the silent majority clamoring for a change in the political system," the new President said.

On 9 July, thousands of protestors set Wickremesinghe's private house alight after they occupied the President's House and the Secretariat. During the unrest, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to Singapore via the Maldives, and his resignation was formally announced on 15 July.

The country of 22 million people is seeking around $4Bln in loans from the IMF. It owes $51Bln, primarily to venture funds and multilateral institutions, and it has defaulted on interest payments of around $7Bln this year.