Kabul, April 02: Thousands have joined a demonstration in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar to vent out their anger at the desecration of the holy Qur’an in the US.
Chants of “death to US” echoed throughout the city of Kandahar as angry demonstrators marched towards the provincial administration headquarters,
Hundreds of foreign troops prevented the demonstrators from marching towards the governor’s office, with some reports indicating that two protester has been killed in the melee.
On Friday, a small number of furious protesters stormed the UN headquarters in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif to protest the burning of a copy of the Muslim holy book by an American pastor in Florida.
On March 20, Pastor Terry Jones, who had already caused an outrage worldwide by threatening to burn copies of the Qur’an last September, broke his earlier promise and burned the Qur’an after holding a mock trial at his fringe church in Gainesville.
Similar protests have been held in the western city of Herat and the capital Kabul, where demonstrators marched on to the UN building to also protest the permanent US military bases in Afghanistan.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has strongly condemned sacrilegious acts against the holy book of Qur’an in the United States.
The presidential office on Thursday described burning of the holy Qur’an at a Florida church as “disrespectful and abhorrent”.
—-agencies