On his first public appearance since protests erupted across the country demanding his ruling family resign over the country's worsening economic crisis, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was booed and heckled.
Months of blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel, and medicines have wreaked havoc on the South Asian island, which is experiencing its worst economic downturn in history.
"If you step down (as Prime Minister) and leave, we will worship you," one man yelled.
While police moved to clear the road for Rajapaksa's convoy of six vehicles, heavily armed Special Task Force (STF) commandos were deployed. According to officials, the premier will return to the capital by helicopter.
People are blocking several major roads across the country in protest of a lack of cooking gas, gasoline, and diesel.
In a statement, the defence ministry said demonstrators were acting "provocatively and threateningly" and disrupting essential services.
On Friday, the government declared a state of emergency, granting the military broad powers to arrest and detain people, after trade unions brought the country to a halt in an attempt to pressure President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign.
Since tens of thousands attempted to storm his private residence in Colombo on March 31, the president, 72, has not been seen in public.
Thousands of people have been camping in front of his office in Colombo since April 9.
The premier, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's brother, paid a visit to one of the holiest Buddhist temples in Anuradhapura on Sunday, which houses a reputedly 23-century-old tree.
Hundreds of men and women, however, carried handwritten placards and chanted slogans demanding that "thieves" be barred from the sacred city, which is located 200 kilometres north of Colombo.
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