World | Afghanistan
Karzai appeals for calm
Outrage over burning of the quran at a detention facility claims nine lives
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- Published: 00:00 February 23, 2012
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Protesters throw rocks at policemen near a US military base in Kabul on Wednesday. Several people were wounded when shots were fired as hundreds of angry Afghans gathered in a second day of violent clashes after copies of the Quran were burned at Nato’s main base in Afghanistan.
Kabul: The violent protests across Afghanistan over the burning of the Quran and other religious books by US forces showed no signs of abating yesterday with nine demonstrators shot and dozens wounded, officials said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed for calm.
"Afghan security forces should not use violence during the protests and protect civilian lives and property," Karzai said in a statement, adding he was deeply saddened by the loss of civilian lives.
The interior ministry ordered an investigation to see if Afghan police or foreigners opened fire at the crowds. "Protests are the right of the people but I ask my countrymen to avoid violence," he added of the protests, which drew thousands to the streets.
The interior ministry blamed at least one of the deaths on "foreign guards of Camp Phoenix", a US military base in eastern Kabul attacked by protesters, but most were attributed by local officials to clashes with police.
Apology
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.
The US apologised on Tuesday for the incident. In his message, US General John Allen, the top commander of American and Nato forces in Afghanistan, said: "It was not a decision that was made because they were religious materials. It was not a decision that was made with respect to the faith of Islam. It was a mistake. It was an error. The moment we found out about it we immediately stopped and we intervened."
The outrage began when some US soldiers burnt copies of the Quran in a pile of garbage at a US military base in Afghanistan after they were removed from a library at a nearby detention centre.
According to an unnamed western military official, some books in the library contained "extremist messages" or "inscriptions" that the soldiers intended to destroy. He said the books were being used to fuel extremism, and that detainees at Parwan Detention Facility were writing on the documents to exchange extremist messages. Parwan Detention Facility adjoins Bagram Air Field, a sprawling US base north of Kabul.
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