 After weeks of mass protests, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahendra Rajapaksa resigned on Monday, May 9. Throughout the day, incidents of violence broke out across the island nation, following provocations by pro-government protesters. At least eight people were killed while over 200 were injured. In the aftermath of the incidents, massive crowds gathered in Colombo's Galiface against the government's policies despite a curfew being declared. To repress the mass protests, the government gave emergency powers on Tuesday, May 10 to its military and police to retain people without warrants. Permission has also been given to the security forces to search private property, including vehicles by force. The escalation of violence on Monday can be attributed to the supporters of the government who attacked anti-government protesters. Over the last two days, I think what we've seen is a largely peaceful movement or an almost completely peaceful movement in terms of protests being pushed to the brink by the government and state forces that have instigated the violence and sent it spiling into worse violence. The last 24 hours have been pretty volatile. It all started with the former Prime Minister Mahendra Rajapaksa summoning his supporters to his official residence yesterday morning and basically inciting them to attack what were largely peaceful protests outside his home and also Galiface green a few miles away from his official residence. So, when the goons attacked those protests, there was a reaction. People around the city rushed into those sites to support the protesters and the police basically allowed the goons to destroy the protests sites and this provoked the people even more and the violence spread to other areas as well. The instigators of this violence is very much the state. What happened on May 9th was that then many more people turned out on the road, many more people turned out on the street. We know from a centre of policy of alternatives survey that 90% of Sri Lankans now want the Rajapaksas out. So, when they saw this kind of violence against the anti-Rajapaksa protesters, many more people came out and they began to target violence at state vehicles, buses that had brought this pro-Rajapaksa crowd into Colombo and against property of MPs and ministers who belong to the Rajapaksa coalition and who are big supporters of the Rajapaksa coalition. For example, like Johnson and Fernanda, I think about 30 to 40 homes were burnt down by and large. These were homes belonging to ministers or MPs who were closely aligned with the Rajapaksas. The former Prime Minister had been asked to resign but he didn't resign till late yesterday afternoon after all the violence had taken place. There's a lot of concern that the Rajapaksas are trying to flee the country and there's a lot of social media activity asking people to make sure that the airports are secure and that the Rajapaksas are not allowed to leave. There have been calls for his arrest, the opposition party members have asked for the arrest of the Rajapaksa for insight and some of the former ministers for inciting the violence yesterday because as you know, till yesterday by and large the protests were peaceful and it was definitely the government which incited the violence that took place in the last 24 hours. These developments are part of the political churning the island nation has been experiencing for the last few weeks. On May 6th, President Gottabaya Rajapaksa had imposed a public emergency in the country in the name of public security and the protection of public order. This was the second time an emergency was imposed in Sri Lanka. The first declaration on April 1st backfired and led to a further escalation of people's protests. Sri Lanka has been dealing with an economic crisis for months characterized by a foreign exchange shortage. This led to a scarcity of essentials such as food, fuel and medicines. Grappling with near bankruptcy, Sri Lanka declared a preemptive default on its $51 million total foreign debt last month. The government's only solution has been to approach the IMF and other international sources for aid. In the wake of the crisis, massive protests broke out in the country especially in Colombo with the slogan, Gota Go Home, resonating across the island. The resignation of PM Rajapaksa alone is unlikely to satisfy protesters who continue to demand that the president give up power as well.