News
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Desecration of holy QuranEight killed as protests flare up in Afghanistan
KABUL: At least eight Afghans were shot dead and dozens were wounded on Wednesday in clashes between police and demonstrators protesting over the burning of the holy Quran at a US-run military base, officials said.
In Kabul and in provinces to the east, north and south of the capital, furious Afghans took to the streets screaming “Death to America”, throwing rocks and setting fire to shops and vehicles as gunshots rang out. In the eastern city of Jalalabad, students set fire to an effigy of US President Barack Obama, and the US embassy in Kabul went into lockdown.
In Kabul, hundreds of people poured onto the Jalalabad Road, throwing stones at US military base Camp Phoenix, where troops guarding the base fired into the air and black smoke rose from burning tyres, a photographer said. The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, apologised and ordered an investigation into the incident, admitting that religious materials, including the holy Quran “were inadvertently taken to an incineration facility”. Allen and US Deputy Defence Secretary Ashton Carter called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday to apologise again for the incident at Bagram airbase north of Kabul, the president’s office said. afp
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk