Key Updates on Sri Lanka: President Gotabaya Rajapaksa flees to Maldives with wife amid protests; Will he resign today?

Sri Lanka economic crisis: Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country amid severe economic crisis and landed in Maldives on Wednesday, along with his wife. The move comes hours before he was supposed to step down following the widespread protests over the Sri Lankan government’s handling of one of the worst economic crisis in history.

According to Sri Lanka Air Force, Rajapaksa left with his wife and two bodyguards aboard a Sri Lankan Air Force plane. Reuters reported that a government source and a another person close to Rajapaksa said that he was staying in Male, the capital of Maldives. Rajapaksa will most likely travel to another Asian country till the time the situation settles down in Sri Lanka.

A top ruling party source has said that Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker could get president Rajapaksa’s resignation letter by midday, according to Reuters report.

Here are some fresh updates on Sri Lanka’s current situation that you should know about:

India has categorically denied the media reports claiming it facilitated the fleeing of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the Maldives on a military jet in the face of a public revolt against his government for mishandling the country’s economy. “The High Commission categorically denies baseless and speculative media reports that India facilitated the recent reported travel of @gotabayar @Realbrajapaksa out of Sri Lanka,” the High Commission of India in Sri Lanka tweeted.

The U.S. embassy in Colombo said it was cancelling afternoon consular services on Wednesday and all services on Thursday, after the Sri Lankan president fled the country following widespread protests. “Out of an abundance of caution, Consular is canceling our Wednesday afternoon services … as well as all consular services on Thursday,” the embassy said on Twitter.

(With Agency Inputs)