Indonesian president cancels trip after deadly protest

Indonesian President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo on Saturday cancelled a visit to Australia after a massive rally in the capital by Muslim hard-liners descended into violence, leaving one dead and 12 injured

An Indonesian policeman fires a tear gas canister to disperse Muslim protesters in Jakarta on Friday. Pic/AFP

Jakarta: Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Saturday cancelled a visit to Australia after a massive rally in the capital by Muslim hard-liners descended into violence, leaving one dead and 12 injured.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said that Jokowi’s trip scheduled from Sunday to Tuesday will be rescheduled because “current development has required the president to stay in Indonesia.” Jokowi addressed the nation after clashes broke out between police and hard-liners who refused to disperse and demanded the arrest of Jakarta’s minority-Christian governor for blasphemy.

The accusation of blasphemy against Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese, has galvanised Jokowi’s political opponents and given a notorious group of hard-liners a national stage.

The Islamic Defenders Front, a vigilante group that wants to impose Shariah law, is demanding Ahok’s arrest after a video circulated online in which he joked about a passage in the Quran.

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