Thousands of student activists from the Inter University Students Federation blocked the main access road to the parliamentary complex since Thursday and carried on protests for almost 24 hours.
The 73-year-old United National Party was appointed as the prime minister by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after they held closed-door discussions on Wednesday.
Padma Vibhushan awardee Murthy has stepped down as Infosys CEO but continues as its chief mentor and board chairman.
During the two-day visit, Mukherjee will meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and discuss the latest situation in the northern part of the island nation, sources said. Mukherjee is expected to impress upon Rajapaksa government the need for finding a political solution to the ethnic problem to ensure lasting peace.
Keen to forge all-weather ties with India, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has lauded the developmental work undertaken by the country in the war-ravaged northern region and vowed not to allow his nation's soil to be used against it.
Official spokesman Lucien Rajakarunanayake said Rajapakse, who won re-election in presidential elections last month, signed a decree dissolving the national assembly with effect from midnight Tuesday.
The swearing in ceremony was held inside the premises of the Presidential Secretariat at 9:30 am. President Sirisena administered the oath of office to 66-year-old Wickremesinghe, who has already served three times as the prime minister.
In a no-holds barred address, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has dared Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief Velupillai Prabhakaran to a one-on-one clash with him. He said that he would challenge Prabhakaran to clash with him directly to avoid a killing spree targeting innocent civilians, Parliamentarians and Ministers.
Rajapaksa had accepted a 'joint' invitation from the Indian government and the event organisers, and would be flying to India on Wednesday, according to diplomatic sources and protocol officials in Delhi.
In the first post war elections in Sri Lanka after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a pro-Tiger party on Sunday won the municipal poll in Vavuniya, an indication that the separatists still attract popular support, even as President Mahinda Rajapaksa's coalition won the prestigious Jaffna local elections.
Claiming that rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were 'receiving an unprecedented defeat,' Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday vowed that government troops would flush out the Tigers from their Wanni heartlands in the north.
With the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam wiped out, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday offered equal rights for Tamils through a political solution, but stressed that it won't be 'imported'. He said the government does not accept the military solution as final and that his aim was to provide equal rights to all communities. Rajapaksa said it was necessary to give the Tamil people the freedoms that are the right of people in all other parts of the country.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam led by its supremo V Prabhakaran had aspired to carve out a big Tamil elam state extending from near Colombo to the southern part of Sri Lanka, the island nation's top defence official has said.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has promised the United Nations that his forces would protect Tamil civilians as it pushes ahead with its offensive to defeat the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Rajapaksa gave this assurance over telephone to UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon, as his forces overran the last base of the sea Tigers near Mulaittivu, cutting off all their escape routes.
In a televised address to the nation, Mahinda, who is under growing pressure to quit due to the worst economic crisis facing the island nation, said that he understands the people's sufferings.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed a three-member court martial panel to try detained ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka on treason charges and the proceedings against him would be launched on March 16.
Foreign Heads of State and governments on Friday congratulated Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on his party's victory in the Lok Sabha polls and said they were looking forward to working with him.
A defiant President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday once again rejected demands for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes during the military campaign against the LTTE, saying countries should not "dictate" to Sri Lanka.
The five Indian fishermen, who were sentenced to death on charges of drug trafficking, have been released by the Sri Lankan authorities.
It may not be desirable in the 21st century, in the context of the emergence of human rights as a powerful emotive factor and of India's rise as an important player on the regional and global scene, to place self-imposed restrictions on the way we deem fit to vote on human rights resolutions, says Satish Chandra
The 18-member Sri Lanka Test squad, led by star batter Dimuth Karunaratne and featuring veterans such as Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal, checked in Dharamsala on Friday.
More than 35,000 trapped Tamil civilians on Monday made a dramatic breakout from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam-controlled areas in Sri Lanka's embattled north, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa handing out a last 24-hour deadline for Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran and his top aides to surrender. Proclaiming that the mass exodus indicated that a 'complete defeat' of the Tigers was imminent, Rajapaksa warned that after this, his forces would make an 'all out' bid.
Glimpses of the protests in Colombo against the worsening economic crisis
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday sacked the country's first woman Chief Justice Shirani Bandarnayake after ratifying her impeachment by Parliament which held her guilty of corruption, notwithstanding widespread protests by lawyers and others.
Sri Lanka's former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, who is the youngest brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was stopped from boarding a flight to Dubai on Monday evening, local media reported.
At least 38 Indian fishermen lodged in Sri Lanka's Jaffna prison for alleged poaching are on a fast unto death demanding their early release.
New Delhi has a chance to rid itself of its image as the bully in the subcontinent by helping a neighbour tackle problems that India, for once, has no role in creating. It should grab the opportunity with both hands, suggests Aditi Phadnis.
Sirisena dissolved Parliament hours after a close aide of the President said that there will be no snap elections or a national referendum to end the current crises.
Pakistan on Thursday hailed Sri Lanka's efforts in tackling terrorism, saying there was a "marked difference" in the country in its post-conflict phase of development. Jalil Abaas Jilani, visiting Pakistani foreign secretary, made the comments during his meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday morning.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Vaiko and his supporters were on Friday detained when they tried to march towards the prime minister's residence in protest against the visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the country. Vaiko and scores of his supporters have been protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi since morning, demanding that India close down the Sri Lankan High Commission in the capital.
Global rights group Human Rights Watch has asked the Commonwealth to shift its meeting, scheduled for November, out of Sri Lanka, unless Colombo makes "prompt, measurable, and meaningful progress on human rights".
The 73-year-old leader on Thursday emailed his resignation letter to the Speaker soon after he was allowed by Singapore to enter the city-state on a "private visit".
In an interview with France24, Wickremesinghe said, "We are a neutral country, but we also emphasise the fact that we cannot allow Sri Lanka to be used as a base for any threats against India."
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's secretary Lalith Weeratunga, who heads the task force, said out of the 135 main recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, there are 33 that need to be implemented at the national level. While some will be implemented within this year the others may take as long as next year, he said
Xi Jinping is winning the war without firing a shot in Sri Lanka, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
When the first flight arrived at Kushinagar airport on Wednesday, it was not Gota or Mahinda who stepped out, but another Rajapaksa. Namal Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's minister of sports.
Priyantha Kumara, the Sri Lankan national, who was lynched by a mob in Pakistan's Punjab province on December 3 over allegations of blasphemy, was buried according to Buddhist and Catholic rites at Ganemulla, a suburb north of Colombo, on Wednesday, December 8.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday offered worship at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in the wee hours near Tirupati.
India on Tuesday asked Sri Lanka to "seize" the opportunity of achieving genuine national reconciliation through recommendations of a post-war panel, as Colombo assured it of its commitment to resolve the long-standing ethnic conflict by devolving powers to the Tamil-dominated provinces.
A Sri Lankan court on Friday named former president Maithripala Sirisena as a suspect in the 2019 Easter bombings in which 270 people, including 11 Indians, were killed.
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