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Agence France-Presse

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 on Friday, journalists on the scene estimated, to protest a fuel price increase 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 said.

Fatkul Khoir, a coordinator at rights group KontraS Surabaya, said on Saturday that 24 protesters were arrested.
Police questioned them until 3.30am on Saturday but did not charge them, he said.
Surabaya police chief Luthfie Sulistiawan told reporters late on Friday that officers had taken “firm actions” to push back protesters after some threw projectiles.
He said there had been “dozens” of arrests but did not specify the number.
Protests erupted in several Indonesian cities this month after Prabowo’s administration raised prices of non-subsidised petrol by around 30 per cent, seeking to ease budgetary pressures as the US-Israel war on Iran weighs on global oil supplies.


Thousands of students took to the streets in the capital Jakarta to oppose both the fuel price increases and to demand a halt to the multibillion-dollar free meals scheme.
The initiative has been a cornerstone of Prabowo’s political agenda but has received widespread criticism for being wasteful and linked to mass food poisonings. It has since been partly suspended.
Indonesia’s biggest unrest since Prabowo took office in 2024 came in August and September, when nationwide protests took place initially over lavish perks for lawmakers.
However, they spiralled into an outburst of anger against security forces after a police vehicle ran over a delivery driver and killed him.
Rights groups said those protests resulted in 10 deaths and thousands of arrests, though most people have since been released.


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Around 100 people had gathered in Surabaya to protest a fuel price increase and the president’s flagship free meals scheme


Around 100 people had gathered in Surabaya to protest a fuel price increase and the president’s flagship free meals scheme.


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Prabowo Subianto

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Dozens arrested in Indonesia after anti-government protest turns violent

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Around 100 people had gathered in Surabaya to protest a fuel price increase and the president’s flagship free meals scheme

Around 100 people had gathered in Surabaya to protest a fuel price increase and the president’s flagship free meals scheme