Hundreds of people took to Kandahar’s streets yesterday to protest against the burning of a Koran in the US, an official said, a day after 10 people died during similar demonstrations in the southern city.
The deaths on Saturday came amid intense anger over the burning of a copy of the Koran by a Florida pastor in the US. The mob turned violent after police blocked their march toward UN and government offices in Kandahar, which is the spiritual heartland of the Taliban insurgency.
More than 80 other people, including security forces, were injured, according to the authorities.
Yesterday, hundreds of people, mostly young men came on to the streets and shouted “Death to the US” and “Death to Karzai,” witnesses said.
Zalmai Ayoubi, a spokesman for the provincial administration, confirmed the protests, adding that they were peaceful.
“Yes there are demonstrations in three locations in Kandahar city and there’s a demonstration in Panjwayi district,” he said, referring to a nearby town, about 10km southwest of Kandahar.
In the eastern city of Jalalabad, hundreds of students blocked a key highway leading to the capital Kabul in similar protests, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.
“The protests in Jalalabad are not violent, but demonstrators have blocked the Kabul-Jalalabad road. They protest against the burning of the Koran in the US,” the spokesman said.
The protests, sparked by the Koran burning by Florida pastor Terry Jones, started in major Afghan cities on Friday. Seven UN staff were killed in an attack on their office by the protesters in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif. The UN mission for the war-torn country said yesterday that it would continue its work in Afghanistan despite the killings.
The Friday attack on the UN was the worst in Afghanistan since the Taliban were toppled in 2001, but special representative Staffan de Mistura vowed the organization’s work in Afghanistan would not be affected.
“This should not deter the UN presence, activities, in this country in this delicate and particularly crucial period,” he said.
The remaining foreign staff from the compound, which was set ablaze in the mob attack, would be temporarily moved to Kabul, he said, but would return as soon as a secure office was established in Mazar-i-Sharif.
“This is not an evacuation. We will watch and monitor the situation everywhere in the country … and I will then decide on relocations inside the country — not outside the country — depending on the circumstances,” he said.
De Mistura blamed insurgents from outside Mazar-i-Sharif for the deadly attack claimed by the Taliban, criticizing police for failing to prevent the violence.
Giving the first full account of the attack, de Mistura said armed rebels had infiltrated street protests.
“Some insurgents, probably between seven and 15 … had infiltrated the demonstration,” de Mistura told reporters late on Saturday in Kabul.
De Mistura was also critical of authorities, saying police were taken by surprise when violence broke out.
“It’s clear that if the Afghan police had had a cordon of separation between the demonstration and the building, the building would not have been attacked,” he said.
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