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Five dead in Afghan protest over Quran burning
KABUL:A total of five demonstrators were shot dead on Wednesday in anti-US protests in Afghanistan over the burning of the Quran at a US military base, officials said.
Three were killed in Shinwar district of Parwan province north of Kabul, provincial administration spokeswoman Roshna Khalid told AFP. Two other people died in clashes between police and protesters in Kabul and in the eastern city of Jalalabad, health ministry and hospital sources said.
"The protests got violent. They attacked police with rocks and in a clash between police and protesters three people were killed and over 10 others are injured," Khalid said.
"All (the injured) are suffering from bullet wounds and were injured during the protests," a health ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Hundreds of Afghans threw stones, shouted "death to America" and torched tires, pouring onto streets Wednesday for a second day of angry protests against Nato troops for burning copies of the Quran.
About 500 protesters threw stones at a US military base in Kabul, while in the eastern city of Jalalabad more than 1,000 demonstrators blocked the highway shouting "Death to Americans, Death to Obama", AFP journalists said.
In Kabul, the crowd attacked anti-riot police, forcing them to retreat, an AFP photographer said. At least one protester was shot, he said, without being able to identify where the shots came from.
Troops guarding the base, Camp Phoenix, fired in the air, he said, while black smoke from burning tyres rose above the demonstration in the Hod Khail neighbourhood.
A second protest erupted in west Kabul, involving about 100 university students, a police spokesman said, adding that riot police were present and the demonstration was under control.
The Jalalabad protest also involved university students, who chanted "We cannot tolerate insults to the sacred religion of Islam" as they prepared to burn an effigy of US President Barack Obama, an AFP reporter said.
The crowd blocked the key highway from the capital Kabul through the eastern provinces to the Pakistani trade port of Turkham.
On Tuesday, protests erupted in Kabul and outside the US-run Bagram military base, north of the capital, as word spread that Nato troops had burnt copies of the Quran.
The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, apologised and ordered an investigation into an incident in which troops "improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Qurans".
In an attempt to head off further protests in deeply religious Afghanistan, Allen repeated his apology late Tuesday and said that all troops would be trained in the "proper handling of religious materials no later than March 3".
For the first time, he admitted that Qurans had been burnt, saying they were "inadvertently taken to an incineration facility at Bagram airfield".
"Along with our apology to the Afghans is our certainty and assurance to them that these kinds of incidents, when they do occur, will be corrected in the fastest and most appropriate manner possible," said Allen.
"We've been shoulder to shoulder with the Afghans for a long time. We've been dying alongside the Afghans for a long time because we believe in them; we believe in their country, and we want to have every opportunity to give them a bright future." Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP the military removed Qurans from the US-run prison at Bagram because inmates were suspected of using the holy book to pass messages to each other.
Five dead in Afghan protest over Quran burning | World | DAWN.COM
KABUL:A total of five demonstrators were shot dead on Wednesday in anti-US protests in Afghanistan over the burning of the Quran at a US military base, officials said.
Three were killed in Shinwar district of Parwan province north of Kabul, provincial administration spokeswoman Roshna Khalid told AFP. Two other people died in clashes between police and protesters in Kabul and in the eastern city of Jalalabad, health ministry and hospital sources said.
"The protests got violent. They attacked police with rocks and in a clash between police and protesters three people were killed and over 10 others are injured," Khalid said.
"All (the injured) are suffering from bullet wounds and were injured during the protests," a health ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Hundreds of Afghans threw stones, shouted "death to America" and torched tires, pouring onto streets Wednesday for a second day of angry protests against Nato troops for burning copies of the Quran.
About 500 protesters threw stones at a US military base in Kabul, while in the eastern city of Jalalabad more than 1,000 demonstrators blocked the highway shouting "Death to Americans, Death to Obama", AFP journalists said.
In Kabul, the crowd attacked anti-riot police, forcing them to retreat, an AFP photographer said. At least one protester was shot, he said, without being able to identify where the shots came from.
Troops guarding the base, Camp Phoenix, fired in the air, he said, while black smoke from burning tyres rose above the demonstration in the Hod Khail neighbourhood.
A second protest erupted in west Kabul, involving about 100 university students, a police spokesman said, adding that riot police were present and the demonstration was under control.
The Jalalabad protest also involved university students, who chanted "We cannot tolerate insults to the sacred religion of Islam" as they prepared to burn an effigy of US President Barack Obama, an AFP reporter said.
The crowd blocked the key highway from the capital Kabul through the eastern provinces to the Pakistani trade port of Turkham.
On Tuesday, protests erupted in Kabul and outside the US-run Bagram military base, north of the capital, as word spread that Nato troops had burnt copies of the Quran.
The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, apologised and ordered an investigation into an incident in which troops "improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Qurans".
In an attempt to head off further protests in deeply religious Afghanistan, Allen repeated his apology late Tuesday and said that all troops would be trained in the "proper handling of religious materials no later than March 3".
For the first time, he admitted that Qurans had been burnt, saying they were "inadvertently taken to an incineration facility at Bagram airfield".
"Along with our apology to the Afghans is our certainty and assurance to them that these kinds of incidents, when they do occur, will be corrected in the fastest and most appropriate manner possible," said Allen.
"We've been shoulder to shoulder with the Afghans for a long time. We've been dying alongside the Afghans for a long time because we believe in them; we believe in their country, and we want to have every opportunity to give them a bright future." Two US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP the military removed Qurans from the US-run prison at Bagram because inmates were suspected of using the holy book to pass messages to each other.
Five dead in Afghan protest over Quran burning | World | DAWN.COM
