PESHAWAR, Sept 21: Protests by tens of thousands of Pakistanis infuriated by an anti-Islam film descended into deadly violence on Friday, with police firing tear gas and live ammunition in an attempt to subdue rioters who hurled rocks and set fire to buildings in some cities.
Thirteen people were killed and nearly 200 injured on a holiday declared by Pakistan’s government so people could rally against the video.
Thousands of Muslims protested in at least half a dozen other countries, some burning American flags and effigies of President Barack Obama.
In Pakistani city of Karachi, the country’s largest city, nine people were killed, officials said.
Doctor Mohammad Shafqat of Karachi’s Jinnah hospital said it had received four dead bodies and 65 people with injuries, with more wounded arriving.
Doctor Mohammad Ayub at the Civil hospital, said his medics had received five dead bodies, including that of a police officer, and at least 40 injured.
The policeman was killed in an exchange of fire with protesters, police official Mohammad Shakeel said.
In the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police fired on rioters who were torching a cinema.
Mohammad Amir, a driver for a Pakistani television station, was killed when police bullets hit his vehicle at the scene, said Kashif Mahmood, a reporter for ARY TV who was also sitting in the car at the time.
A protester who was shot during a demonstration in the city also died, said police officer Rohhullah Khan.
In Karachi, armed protesters among a group of 15,000 fired on police, killing one and wounding another, said police officer Ahmad Hassan. The crowd also burned two cinemas and a bank, he said.
Doctor Farman at Khyber Teaching Hospital, who used only one name, confirmed that another body had been brought in after the demonstrations.
In Lahore and Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, police fired tear gas as well as warning shots in an attempt to keep them from advancing toward U.S. missions in the cities. At least 195 people, including nine police, were injured in the nationwide unrest, according to police and hospital officials.
‘Iraq’
Meanwhile in Iraq, about 3,000 protesters condemned the film and caricatures of the prophet in a French satirical weekly.
The protest in the southern city of Basra was organized by Iranian-backed Shiite groups. Some protesters raised Iraqi flags and posters of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, while chanting: “Death to America.”
Protesters burned Israeli and American flags and raised a banner that read: “We condemn the offences made against the prophet.”
‘Sri Lanka’
In the Sri Lanka capital of Colombo, about 2,000 Muslims burned effigies of President Barack Obama and American flags at a protest after Friday prayers, demanding that the United States ban the film. In Bangladesh, over 2,000 people marched through the streets of the capital, Dhaka, to protest the film. They burned a makeshift coffin draped in an American flag and an effigy of Obama.
They also burned a French flag to protest the publication of the caricatures of the prophet. Small and mostly orderly protests were also held in Malaysia and Indonesia.
‘US struggling’
U.S. officials have struggled to explain to the Muslim world how they strongly disagree with the anti-Islam film but have no ability to block it because of the freedom of speech in the country.
The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, in a bid to tamp down public rage over the film, is spending $70,000 to air an ad on Pakistani television that features President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denouncing the video. Their comments, which are from previous public events in Washington, are in English but subtitled in Urdu, the main Pakistani language.
Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf called on the international community Friday to pass laws to prevent people from insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
‘Freedom of Speech’
“If denying the Holocaust is a crime, then is it not fair and legitimate for a Muslim to demand that denigrating and demeaning Islam’s holiest personality is no less than a crime?” Ashraf said during a speech to religious scholars and international diplomats in Islamabad.
Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Germany, but not in the U.S.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry on Friday summoned the U.S. charge d’affaires in Islamabad, Richard Hoagland, to protest the film. Pakistan has banned access to YouTube because the website refused to remove the video.
In Germany, the Interior Ministry said it was postponing a poster campaign aimed at countering radical Islam among young people due to tensions caused by the online video insulting Islam.
It said posters for the campaign – in German, Turkish and Arabic – were meant to go on display in German cities with large immigrant populations on Friday but are being withheld because of the changed security situation. Germany is home to an estimated 4 million Muslims.
(Agencies)
