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Three dead in Afghan protest
11/05/2005 11:21 - (SA)
Kabul - Three people were killed and at least 60 were injured on Wednesday in a violent protest in Afghanistan sparked by reports US soldiers were desecrating the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, a doctor said.
"We have two dead in our hospital and 47 wounded. Three of the people injured are in a serious condition," Mohammed Ayob, deputy director of the public health hospital in the eastern city of Jalalabad, told AFP.
"The medical university hospital, the second hospital of the city, has registered one dead and 12 wounded are in hospital. Some other people with light injuries were cared for and have been discharged," he added.
An angry crowd numbering thousands in the eastern city of Jalalabad tried to set fire to several key buildings including the offices of several aid agencies, the governor's house and the Pakistani consulate, police and witnesses told AFP.
According to witnesses, police opened fire as the crowd rampaged through the centre of the city chanting slogans including "Death to America" and burning effigies of US President George W Bush.
The US state department said late on Tuesday that the Pentagon was investigating a report in US-based Newsweek magazine that interrogators in Guantanamo, Cuba, kept copies of the Koran in toilets to annoy prisoners.
More than 5 000 protesters, "maybe 10 000" had taken to the streets to protest against the report and the presence of US troops in Afghanistan, a local police source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The US has around 16 000 troops in Afghanistan as part of an international coalition of 18 000. They are hunting remnants of the Taliban three and a half years after the Islamic regime was ousted by US-led forces and Afghan warlords.
"Police opened fire in the air to control the mob, and some people were injured. We do not know how many," Jalalabad police chief Abdul Rehman told AFP.
"Initially the demonstrators were peaceful but then a group joined them and the mob turned violent," he added.
"The demonstrators have set fire to government offices and private buildings. There is smoke everywhere. We have arrested a number of people who wanted to created violence. Things are under control now."
The protests were sparked by radio and television reports about the alleged abuse of the Koran at Guantanamo, demonstrators said.
"After people heard the news that a Koran was set on fire and was thrown in the toilet in Guantanamo by US soldiers they were angered and that sparked the demonstration," auto mechanic Mohammed Nadir, 24, told AFP.
- AFP
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