The Maldivian embassy in Sri Lanka has issued an advisory over the ‘Jana Balaya’ anti-government protest to be held in Colombo on Wednesday.

The statement, dated Tuesday, asks that Maldivians living in Colombo exercise extreme caution and to avoid crowded spaces.

Mass protests are to be held across Colombo on 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th of September and organizers have instructed region councilors to bring in ‘at least a bus load’ to Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s Joint Opposition is a coalition united against President t Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, and while its headed by the Mahajana Eskath Peramuna party, it consists primarily of individuals loyal to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

“Our priority now is to get the people who are suffering untold hardships to rally round the opposition. This is why we are holding a major protest on Wednesday,” Rajapaksa told a Colombo-based newspaper on Monday.

Sirisena’s government has faced accusation of graft, mass corruption, cracking down on dissent, and infringing on the autonomy of judicial and legislative powers.