MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th August, 2020) Riot police in Belarus have begun using stun grenades and rubber bullets to quell the protests underway in major cities following Sunday's contentious presidential election.
In capital Minsk, a journalist working for Belarusian weekly Nasha Niva sustained an injury from a rubber bullet and was transported to a hospital, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene.
Riot police drove several hundred protestors from Victor's Avenue using stun grenades and crowd control maneuvers. Many of the protesters were forced to relocate to the old city of Minsk, which is a pedestrian area dotted with restaurants and cafes.
Drivers and onlookers expressed their solidarity with the opposition by honking and chanting slogans of support.
Sunday's election has proved the most eventful since Belarus' independence, with many citizens mobilizing to support unlikely opposition candidates to longtime president Alexander Lukashenko. Much of the international community has expressed concern with the jailing of two major opposition candidates. Protests erupted in major towns and cities on Sunday night after the official exit poll showed Lukashenko winning by a large majority, and Monday's official figures putting Lukashenko at over 80 percent of the vote.
