Dinesh Gunawardena has been sworn in as the new prime minister of Sri Lanka amid the ongoing economic and political crisis in the island nation.
The 73-year-old veteran politician and a longtime ally of the Rajapaksa family took oath on Friday in presence of newly-appointed President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Gunawardena is a leader of the leftist outfit Mahajana Eksath Peramuna. He has served as a Cabinet minister and Leader of the House in the Sri Lankan Parliament.
He is seen as a loyalist of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fled the country last week amid widespread protests against an unprecedented economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, late on Thursday night, the Sri Lankan military and police personnel raided the Galle Face site in Colombo where protestors have been holding peaceful sit-in demonstration for months. Security personnel assaulted the protestors and journalists present at the site near the presidential secretariat, witnesses said.
