COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s deposed president Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to the country on Friday, an airport official said, seven weeks after he fled in the face of angry protests over the island’s worst-ever economic crisis.

Rajapaksa was garlanded with flowers by a welcoming party of ministers and politicians as he disembarked at the main international airport, the official said, adding that the 73-year-old leader had returned from Bangkok via Singapore.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2022