Lanka's anti-govt protest that ousted Prez Rajapaksa ends

Colombo: After 123 days of unprecedented anti-government protests which saw the ouster of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the agitation over the country's worst economic crisis formally ended on Tuesday, even as the demonstrators said that their campaign for a "system change" would continue.

The protesters left the main anti-government protest camp at Galle Face promenade where they had been parked since April 9 branding it as the Gota go home village' (Rajapaksa go home).

We have collectively decided to quit the Galle Face site today. It does not mean that our struggle has ended," Manoj Nanayakkara, a spokesman for the group, said.

We press for ending the state of emergency, a fresh parliamentary election and an end to the presidential system," Koswatte Mahanama, a young monk said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's Supreme Court on Wednesday extended until September 5 the overseas travel ban on former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his younger brother and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, who are widely blamed for the current economic crisis in the

island nation.