The Sri Lankan government has announced it will carry out an extensive investigation into police attacks on students protesting in Colombo.
Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a special committee to probe the attack on students, during a demonstration on Thursday calling for the Higher National Diploma in Accountancy to be given degree status.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mangala Samaraweera in a media release suggested the attacks may have been part of a conspiracy to discredit the government by likening it to 'inhumane' previous regime.
"It need not be reiterated that such a violent course of action is not at all in keeping with the Maithripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe era," Mr Samaraweera said.
"However, it is no secret that there are conspirators among us who are attempting to justify the brutal past by portraying the present government as akin to the previous one and by pointing out that there’s no difference between the Rajapaksa regime and the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. Therefore it is an essential to urgently ascertain whether these attacks had been made as a result of such a conspiracy."