Belarusian Police Start Arresting Pro-Opposition Demonstrators In Minsk

MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2020) Special Purpose Police Detachment (OMON) officers in the Belarusian capital of Minsk began conducting arrests of participants of an unauthorized public demonstration in the city's Independence Square, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Thursday.

Some 30 women gathered in front of the Church of Saints Simon and Helena, also known as the Red Church, carrying balloons and white-red ribbons, the token of the pro-opposition marches in Belarus.

According to the correspondent, OMON officers asked the women to leave the area and stop violating the public order.

Two vehicles without plates subsequently approached the demonstration, and the officers dragged one of the protesting women in one of these vehicles.

Belarusian opposition began staging mass protests following the August 9 presidential election which saw Lukashenko reelected for a sixth term. While according to the electoral authorities he collected over 80 percent of the vote, the opposition has insisted that Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, an opposition candidate, won the election.

Tikhanovskaya, who left Belarus for Lithuania shortly after the election day, said on Thursday she had no plans to leave her exile at this point.

"I yet see no reasons to leave Lithuania. We set a team there, and a strong team joined us. We work there," Tikhanovskaya told the Polish-based Belsat broadcaster of Poland.

Speaking to journalists in Warsaw earlier in the day, Tikhanovskaya said she would not attend the meeting of the Visegrad Four prime ministers in the Polish city of Lublin either.

The Visegrad quartet includes the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Earlier in the day, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said their group should not meet with the representatives of the Belarusian opposition.

The parliament of Lithuania, on the other hand, adopted a resolution on Thursday, recognizing Tikhanovskaya the elected leader of Belarus.