Thousands of Afghans Wednesday staged demonstrations in Kabul and Jalalabad over the alleged burning of the holy Quran by foreign soldiers, with three injured in clashes with police.Protests erupted Tuesday here after media reports said copies of the Quran were found in the rubbish that NATO transported in a truck Monday night to a pit where waste is burned.
On Wednesday, demonstrations were also held in Jalalabad, capital of eastern Nangarhar province.
Three people were injured when police stopped the protesters from entering the governor’s office in the city, a police officer told Xinhua.
The protesters burned tires and chanted anti-US slogans in Kabul. They closed the main road from Kabul to Jalalabad and planned to march to the Afghan parliament building.
On Tuesday, over 2,000 people had gathered outside the Bagram airbase, where hundreds of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives are held, and alleged that US and NATO soldiers have burned the Quran.
Bagram is the main US military base in Afghanistan and is 50 km from Kabul. President Hamid Karzai has condemned the reports of Quran burning.