SURABAYA: Indonesian police have arrested dozens of protesters following a rally against President Prabowo Subianto's policies in the country's second-largest city, a rights group said on Saturday. Around 100 people gathered near a government building in Surabaya, journalists estimated, to protest a fuel price hike and Prabowo's flagship free meals scheme.
Some demonstrators hurled rocks towards police and set fire to rubbish in the middle of the road, prompting officers to arrest them, the reporters saw. Twenty-four protesters were arrested, Fatkul Khoir, a coordinator at rights group KontraS Surabaya, said. Police questioned them until 3:30 am on Saturday but did not charge them, he said.
Protests erupted in several Indonesian cities this month after Prabowo's administration raised prices of non-subsidised gasoline by around 30 per cent, seeking to ease budgetary pressures as the Middle East war weighs on global oil supplies. Thousands of students took to the streets in the capital Jakarta to oppose both the fuel price hikes and to demand a halt to the multi-billion-dollar free meals scheme. — AFP
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