World | Pakistan
Government bans demonstrations in capital
Pakistan banned demonstrations in Islamabad on Saturday as protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) grew.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 February 19, 2006
Multan: Pakistan banned demonstrations in Islamabad on Saturday as protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) grew.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the ban would apply to a protest planned today by Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the country's main Islamist alliance.
"MMA leaders have been told that protests and rallies will not be allowed in Islamabad," he told a news conference
But the MMA said its protest would go ahead.
"The rally will be held in Islamabad. It will be a peaceful rally," Shahid Shamsi, an MMA spokesman said.
"The protests will continue and we will hold a big demonstration in Islamabad on Sunday. If the government tries to stop it, then it will be responsible for the consequences," he added.
The MMA also called on the government to end diplomatic relations with Denmark.
"We disagree with the policy of President Pervez Musharraf," Shamsi said
"Musharraf should completely snap diplomatic relations with Denmark."
Shamsi said that to thwart the MMA protest in Islamabad the government on Saturday took into custody around 50 of its workers in Islamabad and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Citing security reasons, Denmark temporarily shut its embassy in Islamabad on Friday and Pakistan recalled its envoy from Copenhagen, amid relentless protests over the cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper in September.
Thousands of protestors took to the streets on Friday for a fifth straight day in Pakistan and clashed with police, who shot and wounded a boy.
Nearly 300 were arrested and a firebrand Islamic leader was put under house arrest in a bid to dampen unrest that has left five Pakistanis dead.
Four wounded in shooting at demonstration
Four people were wounded on Saturday when shots were fired during a protest in central Pakistan over the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), police said.
The shooting occurred as hundreds of protesters pelted police with stones and tried to block a road in the town of Chiniot in the central province of Punjab, a local police official said.
He said it was unclear whether police or protesters fired the shots.
The official said police reinforcements had been called in from neighbouring towns.
"The situation is now under control," he said. Police detained around 40 activists of the student wing of an Islamist group in the city of Multan as they tried to stage a demonstration in defiance of the government's ban on public rallies in Punjab.
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