20 killed in film protests across Pak
Around 20 people were killed and hundreds injured on Friday when thousands of angry demonstrators during government-sanctioned protests over an anti-Islam film turned violent in several cities across Pakistan on a day being observed as ‘Love the Prophet Day’.
The worst affected was Pakistan’s financial hub Karachi, where 14 people were killed, including two policemen who were shot dead. Around 110 others were injured when the rallies turned violent and anarchy prevailed for many hours in the coastal city.
Officials said nearly 200 people were injured in Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar before the protests tapered off at nightfall.
The Foreign Ministry also summoned the US charge d’affaires in Islamabad, Richard Hoagland, to lodge a complaint against the film.
Rampaging mobs destroyed private and government property worth crores of rupees across the country. Protesters vandalised and torched three cinema halls and the chamber of commerce in Peshawar in the northwest.
Five persons, including an employee of a TV news channel, were killed in violence in Peshawar city, officials said.
ARY News said its employee Mohammad Amir died after being hit by a bullet in police firing. Others were killed in police firing or clashes between protesters and police. Footage on television showed several armed protesters firing during demonstrations.
In Karachi, mobs torched three cinema halls, three government offices, three banks and several police vans near the chief minister’s residence.
At many places, crowds of protesters looted shops and private buildings. A toll plaza and several vehicles were burnt by protesters on the outskirts of Rawalpindi. Protesters also blocked roads by burning tyres and lobbed stones at passing cars.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was a “terrorist attack” that killed the American ambassador to Libya and three others, adding that the US will not rest until those responsible were brought to justice. Clinton told reporters on Friday that “what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.”
Endure insults peacefully, Egypt’s mufti urges Muslims
Muslims angered by cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad should follow his example of enduring insults without retaliating, Egypt’s highest Islamic legal official said. Western embassies tightened security in Sanaa, fearing the cartoons published in a French magazine on Wednesday could lead to more unrest in the Yemeni capital where crowds attacked the US mission last week over an anti-Islam film made in America.
The anger trail
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.
Philippines
A law professor defied a ban by Philippine university officials and showed students the film’s 14-minute trailer. Constitutional law professor Harry Roque of the University of Philippines said the film was “trash and nothing but trash” and will not convince people Islam is evil.
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 Shia groups.
