Four die in Kabul protest over Koran
Police opened fire on the protesters, killing four and injuring at least 71. The US troops fired into the air before quickly leaving the area, provincial intelligence chief Sardar Shah said.
The Interior Ministry said four people were killed and that the 71 injured included seven police officers. It didn’t identify the victims further. Deputy provincial health chief Mohammed Ayub Shinwari said most of the injured were students. He reported that two of the dead had been fatally shot and many of the injured had suffered gunshot wounds.
The US embassy said it was “deeply concerned” at the violence, and said the US government will investigate the allegations of desecration.
“The US respects the right of all people to practice their own religion, and that disrespect toward the holy book of any religion is unacceptable,” charge d’affaires Richard Christenson said. Mobs also attacked the Pakistani consulate and the offices of two UN agencies and several relief organisations. No foreigners were reported hurt.
US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore said US forces in the area were ordered back to their camps but had no information on whether any of them were caught up in the unrest. The demonstrations began yesterday, when protesters burned an effigy of US President George Bush over a report in Newsweek magazine that interrogators at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, placed Korans on toilets in order to rattle suspects, and in at least one case “flushed a holy book down the toilet”.
A television cameraman said the crowds in Jalalabad grew larger and wilder after the police firing, and that the streets were deserted of traffic. Police and government troops had restored order by early afternoon, witnesses said.
The US is holding about 520 people at Guantanamo Bay, many of them al-Qaida and Taliban suspects captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks in America.
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