Watch: 'shampoo protesters' greet Lanka president after he announced spending cuts

People clashing with police rarely evoke laughter. And, these moving images from Sri Lanka’s Jaffna certainly shift our focus as to why people were protesting to what they did.

As they gathered on the roads to protest the visit of island nation’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe near Jaffna University, the police retorted to water cannon. But in a gesture of defiance, the protesters pulled out the shampoo and started using the sprayed water to wash their hair.

With Wickremesinghe ordering a five per cent reduction in state spending and his administration warning that welfare payments for 1.8 million families below the poverty line could be delayed this month, Lanka is witnessing fresh protests.