DHAKA: The Tunisian government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in eight areas of the country, including the capital, after rioting blamed on ultra-conservative Salafi Muslims left dozens of police officers injured.
The wave of violence on Monday night mostly targeted courts and other state buildings. Police in the capital Tunis fired tear gas to disperse protesters who torched a local courthouse and attacked several police stations.
Protesters blocked streets and set tyres alight in the working class Ettadamen and Sidi Hussein districts, hurling petrol bombs at police in some of the worst confrontations the city has seen since last year`s revolution.
By morning, protests had spread to a number of residential districts, with young men preventing trams from passing through the Intilaqa district of the capital, where shops remained closed. There was evidence of looting in some areas, where shop windows were smashed.
The government condemned the riots as "terrorism" and vowed to punish the perpetrators; 165 people were arrested.
"[They] will be brought to justice under the anti-terror law decreed in 2003," said Mohamed Fadhel Saihi, an interior ministry official.
The clashes in Tunis came a day after a group of Salafis, who follow a strictly conservative interpretation of Islam, forced their way into an art exhibition in the upscale La Marsa suburb and defaced works they deemed offensive.
BDST: 1225 HRS, JUN 13, 2012
Source: Aljazeera
SA
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