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		</div><p>Montenegrin police said they have detained around 60 people following clashes at protests demanding the release of eight Serbian Orthodox Church priests jailed for leading a religious procession despite a ban on gatherings related to the Covid-19 outbreak.</p>
<p>Twenty-six officers were injured during the unrest late on Wednesday in the towns of Niksic and Pljevlja, police said.</p>
<p>One of the injured policemen has been taken to hospital, the statement said.<br />
Police insisted they intervened with pepper spray and dispersed the protesters into smaller groups after they threw rocks, bottles and other objects and blocked traffic.</p>
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<p>Police were <i>“brutally attacked for no reason”</i>, the statement added.</p>
<p>An axe and a knife were found during a search in Niksic and police property was damaged, while protesters in Pljevlja stoned the police station in the town, the statement also said.</p>
<p>Some of the people were detained in other towns where they tried to organise gatherings, including the capital, Podgorica.</p>
<p>The protests followed the arrest of the Serbian Orthodox Church priests who had led a procession Tuesday that a few thousand people attended without wearing face masks or keeping a safe distance between one another.</p>
<p>The incidents add to tensions between the government and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro which earlier this year organised months-long protests against a religious law they say would strip the church of its property.</p>
<p>Montenegrin authorities have denied this would happen.</p>
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<p>A country of 620,000 people, Montenegro split from much larger Serbia in a referendum in 2006.</p>
<p>In Serbia, populist President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that “we fail to comprehend” why Bishop Joanikije and other priests remain in detention.</p>
<p>He added that Serbia cannot interfere in any way but<i> “will remain by our people and the church as much as we can”</i>.</p>
<p>Large gatherings are still banned in Montenegro as part of efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus.</p>
<p>The detained priests are facing charges of violating health regulations during the virus outbreak by organising the procession.</p>
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