COLOMBO: Fisticuffs and object hurling prevailed in the Sri Lankan parliament on Wednesday when Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe read a special statement over a Treasury bond scam committed at the central bank in 2015.

Legislators of the joint opposition who support former president Mahinda Rajapaksa launched a protest in the well of the house, calling upon the speaker to divulge the details of the scam.

The unruly situation shortly turned violent when an object was hurled at the prime minister resulting in the speaker Karu Jayasuriya suspending the sitting for 10 minutes.

“Utter pandemonium in parliament. Apparently someone threw an object at the PM while he was speaking in the Chamber. Didn’t see who it was. Disgraceful,” Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Development Harsha De Silva posted on Twitter.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2018