The government says youth engaged in peaceful protests must ensure they are not manipulated by third parties.
Speaking during the weekly Cabinet media briefing in Colombo today, Co-Cabinet Spokesman Minister Nalaka Godahewa claimed the government has observed certain groups attempting to use the peaceful public protests for personal gains.
Minister Godahewa further claimed foreign entities influenced the blindfolding of the statue of SWRD Bandaranaike at Galle Face.
He said there were posts circulating on social media calling for the statue to be taken down.
The Co-Cabinet Spokesman questioned whether the two incidents were correlated.
Minister Godahewa claimed the government has democratically allowed protests to continue thus far.
The Minister also claimed the Head of State has no intention of quelling the peaceful protests by using force and that the President is of the view that protests will not be obstructed as long as the public is not inconvenienced.
