Islamabad, February 15
Violent protests in Pakistan against publication of Prophet Mohammad’s cartoons in European dailies claimed three more lives today as thousands of people went on the rampage burning cinema halls and western businesses in northwestern city of Peshawar.
Two deaths, including of an eight-year-old boy, occurred in Peshawar and one in Lahore where protests continued for the second day today. With this, five persons have so far lost their lives in the country during protests.
The police fired in air and used tear gas shells to control thousands of protesters who marched up to the main business district of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWF) governed by Islamist alliance MMA, and attacked shops and businesses. The protesters also burnt a KFC outlet and ransacked it, reports reaching here said.
Some of the protesters opened fire as well, eyewitnesses said.
The rioters also attacked the offices of the Norwegian mobile phone company Telenor and Pakistan’s main mobile phone operator Mobilink, besides burning and ransacking three cinema halls, the witnesses were quoted as saying.
They also burnt a bus terminal operated by South Korea’s Sammi Corp, with the local Geo TV reporting that flames were shooting out of some of the buses.
An eight-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet while another person died when a power transmission line fell on protesters in Peshawar, the reports said.
Holding “troublemakers” responsible for the riots, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani urged people to remain calm. Paramilitary forces were deployed in NWFP and the government announced that schools and colleges would be closed for a week.
Pakistani authorities also announced a ban on rallies in eastern Pakistan for an indefinite period.
Elsewhere in NWFP, violence broke out in Tank, a town near the Iranian border. A policeman was injured when some protesters opened fire indiscriminately, the reports said and quoted eyewitnesses as saying that more than 20 shops selling video and audio CDs were attacked and set on fire.
In Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, hundreds of Islamic students took to the streets. Police used teargas to disperse the protesters and then opened fire leading to death of one person.
The students had also organised an unannounced rally outside Punjab University.
The rampaging crowd had yesterday targeted McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and KFC outlets in Lahore, besides government buildings, banks and hotels. They also torched two cinema
halls. — PTI
