Myanmar police beat, kick student protesters
Hundreds of police in Myanmar charged student protesters with batons Tuesday, kicking and beating them as they dragged them into trucks in a effort to end a days-long standoff in the town of Letpadan.
Witnesses said many of the demonstrators were injured in the crackdown, though the extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
Police also chased journalists, scattering them in all directions.
The clash came after student protesters started a sit-in on a road near a monastery in Letpadan last week when authorities prevented them from marching to Myanmar’s biggest city of Yangon, about 90 miles to the south.
The demonstrators want the government to scrap a newly passed education law that they say curbs academic freedom.
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