Colombo, Nov 2 (PTI) A mass opposition protest against what they termed state repression was brought to an abrupt halt on Wednesday as Sri Lankan police blocked the road preventing the protesters from reaching the originally intended site for the rally.

Sri Lanka's main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), trade unions and radical left-wing parties organised the march to urge the government to end the democratic repression, the use of the anti-terrorism Act to crackdown on peaceful protests, and to bring economic relief to the people hit by the ongoing economic crisis.

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Lanka has been facing the worst economic crisis since its independence from the British in 1948, leading to the fall of the debt-ridden nation's powerful Rajapaksa family from politics.

Several thousand people took to the road under fears that the police may crack down on them.

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The police on Wednesday morning wrote to the organisers that the protest was illegal and no police permission could be granted for their plans to hold a rally at the Colombo Fort main railway station.

The march at peak traffic time would cause traffic snarls and inconvenience to public life, the police emphasised.

Opposition SJB leader Sajith Premadasa said he was abandoning the protest at the site where thousands of police blocked the march from moving forward to the intended location.

"As law-abiding and peaceful protesters, we stop it right here, but we will carry on with our struggle against the government's repression of democratic action," he told the gathering.

The human rights commission, however, disputing the police said the public's right to peaceful protests must be upheld. The rights commission said they were deploying observers.

The police are accused of using tear gas and water cannons to suppress all recent street protests by the public.

The protesting parties demanded the release of two frontline socialist party activists held under the prevention of terrorism act for over three months now, blaming president Ranil Wickremesinghe for unleashing state repression on democratic protests.

Sri Lanka's main business chamber on Tuesday urged the political parties to refrain from organising street protests as they would impede the current process of economic recovery launched by the government.

In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced it will provide Sri Lanka with a loan of about USD 2.9 billion over four years under a preliminary agreement to help the bankrupt island nation tide over its worst economic crisis.

Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is going through its worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948 which was triggered by a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves.

In mid-April, Sri Lanka declared its international debt default due to the forex crisis.

The country owes USD 51 billion in foreign debt, of which USD 28 billion must be paid by 2027.

There have been street protests in Sri Lanka against the government since early April due to its mishandling of the economic crisis.

A crippling shortage of foreign reserves has led to long queues for fuel, cooking gas, and other essentials while power cuts and soaring food prices have heaped misery on the people.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)