Sun 11 October 2020:
Dozens of protesters were detained during the latest rallies on Sunday. In the capital Minsk, police blasted protesters with coloured water to mark them out for arrest.
Belarus has been rocked by street protests and strikes since longtime ruler Alexander Lukashenko was officially declared the winner by a landslide in a disputed August 9 vote.
Since then, opposition supporters have been taking to the streets every week to demand that the 65-year-old step down and allow for a new election to be held.
On Sunday, videos showed thousands of people marching through Minsk, waving flags and chanting slogans. Footage published by local news outlets also showed police officers wearing black balaclavas dragging protesters into unmarked black vans and beating demonstrators with their batons.
In one video, filmed by a reporter for the Nasha Niva independent newspaper, troops appeared to run towards demonstrators while threatening them with guns.
Similar rallies were held in other cities across the country on Sunday.
Police used stun grenades and water cannon against demonstrators in Minsk, a spokeswoman for Belarus’s interior ministry told AFP news agency.
They sprayed plain and coloured water at demonstrators, covering them in what appeared to be orange dye.
Some defiant protesters remained unmoved, using their umbrellas to shield themselves from the blast.
In videos posted online, police can be seen beating protesters with batons and snatching their white-and-red flags – a symbol of nationalist opposition to Mr Lukashenko.
Some protesters fought back and pelted police with bottles and other objects.
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