Crowds of people have taken part in dozens of small rallies scattered all around Minsk.

Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years, has shrugged off the scale of protests, saying they are sponsored by the West.

Belarusian security forces detained more than 100 protesters on Sunday at rallies in Minsk the opposition had billed as "the march of neighbors," a rights group reported and videos on local social media showed.

Protesters held portraits of opposition supporter Raman Bandarenka, who died earlier this month after reportedly being beaten by security forces.

Demonstrators carried banners reading, "The people's memory (lasts) longer than a life of a dictatorship" and "Stop torturing your people!"

Over 200,000 people took part in the demonstration in Minsk, the Viasna human rights centre said.

Several hundred women marched across the capital of Belarus in heavy rain Saturday to demand the resignation of the country's authoritarian president, continuing more than 2 1/2 months of protests against his challenged reelection to a sixth term.

The Viasna human rights centre said more than 30 demonstrators were detained.

Belarus, a former Soviet republic closely allied with Russia, has been rocked by street protests and strikes since authorities announced that veteran leader Alexander Lukashenko had won an Aug. 9 vote by a landslide.

Lukashenko's office said that "the goal of the president was to hear everyone's opinion." Among 11 jailed activists who attended the meeting were several members of the opposition's Coordination Council and Viktor Babariko, the former head of a major Russia-owned bank.