ROME: Police in Italy used water cannon and tear gas against protesters at the northeastern port of Trieste on Monday following a three-day demonstration against a new mandatory workplace Covid pass.
Dozens of police in riot gear faced off against hundreds of remaining demonstrators and port workers who began blocking one of the port entrances Friday to protest the introduction of the “Green Pass.”
“Liberty, liberty!” shouted protesters, as others yelled “We’re not violent, put down your shields.”
Police managed to clear the entrance after a few hours of standoff, pushing demonstrators to a nearby parking lot from which they then marched toward the city center.
Italian news agency AGI reported that by Friday afternoon, more than a thousand protesters were participating in a sit-in at Trieste’s main plaza.
Trieste dock workers had called a strike Friday despite being offered free Covid tests, and their protest attracted demonstrators from out of town.
The Green Pass, which offers proof of vaccination, recent recovery from Covid-19 or a negative test, became mandatory in all workplaces on Friday throughout Italy.
The new regulation spurred a wave of protests across the country, although most were small and not disruptive.
More than 6,500 people demonstrated at the Trieste port, however, at the height of the protest Friday.
Although more than 85 percent of Italians over the age of 12 have received at least one vaccine dose, qualifying them for the pass, there remain up to three million workers estimated to be unvaccinated.
Italian police use water cannon on port protesters
https://arab.news/pzqwa
Italian police use water cannon on port protesters
- Dozens of police in riot gear faced off against hundreds of remaining demonstrators and port workers
- They began blocking one of the port entrances Friday to protest the introduction of the "Green Pass"
Pakistani Taliban kill six soldiers in checkpoint attack
- Pakistan has faced a surge in militant attacks along its border regions since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistani Taliban militants stormed a security checkpoint in Pakistan’s northwestern border area with Afghanistan, killing six soldiers and wounding four others, a government official said Tuesday.
Pakistan has faced a surge in militant attacks along its border regions since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021.
It accuses Afghanistan of harboring the insurgents, a claim the Taliban government denies.
Late Monday, more than a dozen armed men attacked the checkpoint, leading to a heavy exchange of fire in Kurram, a tribal district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Six security personnel were martyred and four were injured, while two militants were also killed in the fighting,” the government official posted in Kurram, who was not authorized to speak to the media, told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
The Pakistani Taliban group, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has long been active in the region, and claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan of sheltering TTP militants and allowing them to launch cross-border attacks from there — a charge Kabul denies.
The border between the two countries has been closed since the clashes in October, though Pakistan said last week it would allow UN aid supplies to pass to Afghanistan soon.
The attack comes days after an exchange of gunfire and shelling between Afghan and Pakistani forces at a major border crossing that killed four civilians and one soldier, according to Afghanistan.
Each side accused the other of starting the fighting.
