ALGIERS (AFP) – Thousands of auxiliary policemen marched in Algiers on Monday to demand pay raises, breaking through heavy security to reach parliament in a rare mass show of dissent in the tightly controlled country.

The policemen, estimated by organizers to number around 20,000 and by reporters to be 10,000, braved a ban on demonstrations in the Algerian capital and pushed through several security cordons to reach the National Assembly.
They were quickly surrounded by regular police dispatched to the scene of the protest.
The men, many of them in uniform, demanded President Abdelaziz Bouteflika bring their salaries and conditions in line with those of other security services, retroactive to 2008, chanting: “Bouteflika is the solution.”
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