BALI (Sputnik) — Indonesian national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar also confirmed that one protester, an elderly man, died, preliminary from asthma, and denied the rumors that the man was shot from a firearm, local news portal Detik.com reported.
"The strongest [thing] the security forces were using on the site was a tear gas, but not bullets," Amar was quoted as saying by the news portal.
The clashes broke out after the representatives of the Indonesian government had met with the organizers of the protest. During the day, no cases of violence were reported amid the protest that gathered about 50,000 people, but in the evening after the police demanded the participants to leave, a group of protesters started to throw bottles and other objects at the policemen, according to the news outlet.
Purnama, a Christian and the first Chinese governor of Jakarta, has apologized for the remarks on Quran, which had sparked outrage among the Islamic communities.
