Demonstrations continued across Myanmar on Tuesday against February 1 military coup as foreign ministers from Southeast Asian countries prepared to meet to discuss the political crisis.

Protesters gathered on Bogyoke Aung San Road in downtown Yangon in the morning. Forces used live ammunition, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse them, but the protesters keep coming back to the streets defying forces brutality.

Forces attacked the protesters on Yangon’s Insein Road with stun grenades and tear gas.

Protesters, wearing hard hats, thick gloves and goggles and holding makeshift shields, had gathered behind barricades in different parts of Yangon.

Meanwhile, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers will hold virtual talks with a representative of Myanmar’s military.

Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan had said that the association will tell the military to stop violence and call for the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and for the two sides to talk.

The authorities also detained more than 1,000 people over the weekend, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Those detained included at least seven journalists, among them an Associated Press reporter. At least two dozen journalists have been detained by the military junta since coup.

Protesters also gathered in the Hledan area of Yangon, where a day earlier police had used tear gas. The protesters chanted slogans and sang songs. They erected barricades to impede any attempt by police to rush forward and make arrests.

The coup plunged Myanmar into political turmoil as the country returned to democracy after five decades of military rule. Ousted leader Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party was to be installed for a second five-year term in office on Feb 2, but instead she was detained along with President Win Myint and other senior officials on unsubstantiated charges of election fraud.

The story was filed by the News Desk. The Desk can be reached at info@thecorrespondent.com.pk.

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