Several thousand UNP supporters staged a protest in Colombo today, demonstrating against the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka’s prime minister and calling for the reconvening of parliament.

Senior UNP leaders spoke at the rally, including Sajith Premadasa, who reportedly said he was “prepared to die for my country's freedom".

The British government must immediately halt all deportations to Sri Lanka and review their asylum policy following the escalating political crisis on the island, said UK-based charity Freedom From Torture.

“We are deeply troubled by this political crisis in Sri Lanka and the prospect of escalating brutality by the military, police and intelligence services,” said Sonya Sceats, Chief Executive of Freedom from Torture.

Responding to the appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister, Sceats said “Rajapaksa's presidency was a reign of terror for countless in Sri Lanka, especially in the minority Tamil community”.

Despite Sri Lanka remaining at a state of political turmoil following the sacking of the prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday and appointment of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president, Maithripala Sirisena yesterday made appointments to a new Cabinet. 

The appointments were tweeted from the president's office's tweet account: 

The Tamil National Alliance leader, R Sampanthan met with Mahinda Rajapaksa this morning, despite the ongoing political turmoil triggered by the latter's appointment as prime minister of Sri Lanka on Friday following the sacking of Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

The TNA was a staunch supporter of the unity government and in 2015 pushed Tamil voters to vote for Sirisena in a bid to oust Rajapaksa, the then president. 

Despite this seeming support however, Sampanthan lost no time to meet with the Rajapaksa, who is accused of overseeing the mass killing of Tamil people during the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009.

British MPs have urged the UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt to push for a "robust international response" to the unfolding political turmoil in Sri Lanka following the sacking of the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe last week and appointment of the former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

Sri Lanka’s top security force officials have met with Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an apparent show of support in the midst of Sri Lanka’s unfolding political crisis over the office of Prime Minister and the collapse of the unity government.

The UK government has expressed concern about Sri Lanka’s unfolding political crisis.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Minister for Asia, Mark Field, said in a statement:

“I am concerned by ongoing political developments in Sri Lanka and am following this fast-moving situation closely. Once again, I call upon all parties to uphold the constitution and due political and legal process.

“I urge President Sirisena, in consultation with the Speaker, to reconvene the parliament immediately in order to give the democratically elected representatives of the Sri Lankan people their voice at this time.

The US embassy in Sri Lanka's chargé d'affaires, Robert Hilton met with Sri Lanka’s speaker of parliament, Karu Jayasuria, and urged parliament to convene as soon as possible.

"Met Speaker @KaruOnline to reconfirm U.S. support for democracy in #SriLanka.  @maithripalas and Speaker should convene Parliament, permit the people’s democratically elected representatives to fulfill their responsibilities to resolve the Constitutional impasse," Hilton tweeted. 

The leader of the EPDP, a pro-government Tamil paramilitary organisation accused of committing human rights abuses throughout and after the war, has been given a ministerial portfolio responsible for several key Tamil issues.

The paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda was appointed ‘Minister of Resettlement, Rehabilitation, Northern Development, and Hindu Religious Affairs’ today in the cabinet of Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Ranil Wickremesinhge’s media division denied reports that he had requested United Nations Peacekeeping Forces to be deployed in Sri Lanka on Monday.

The rebuttal came after a letter addressed to international embassies requesting assistance in handling political arrest, that was signed by Wickremesinghe, had been circulated amongst media outlets.

Speaking to the sundaytimes.lk, Wickremesinhe’s media office said a fake letter had been sent to embassies using a forged signature.