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Pak grapples with fallout of violent protests

Islamabad, September 22 Pakistanis today grappled with the fallout of the violence that engulfed the country during protests against an anti-Islam film, resulting in the death of at least 23 persons and destruction of property worth billions of rupees in what is being described by the media as the day of "killer rage". Activists of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan at the funeral of a protester killed in Friday’s violence in Karachi. — AFP

30 injured in clash with police in Bangladesh
Dhaka, September 22
Hundreds of activists of Islamic parties protesting against an anti-Islam film today defied a ban on rallies in Bangladesh and clashed with riot police, who fired tear gas and used batons to disperse stone-pelting demonstrators leaving at least 30 persons injured.
Bangladeshi policemen detain an activist of an Islamic group during a protest in Dhaka on Saturday. — AP/PTI

Pak grapples with fallout of violent protests

Islamabad, September 22
Pakistanis today grappled with the fallout of the violence that engulfed the country during protests against an anti-Islam film, resulting in the death of at least 23 persons and destruction of property worth billions of rupees in what is being described by the media as the day of "killer rage".

Violence erupted yesterday during government-sanctioned protests against the film 'Innocence of Muslims', which has triggered large-scale demonstrations across the Muslim world.

Two policemen were among the 17 persons who died in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, while six more were killed in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Over 200 were injured, some of them seriously, during protests in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and other cities across the country.

Throughout the day yesterday, TV news channels beamed footage of rampaging mobs looting and burning private and public property.

Protesters torched or vandalised five cinema halls in Karachi, including one that was earlier owned by President Asif Ali Zardari's family, three other theatres and the chamber of commerce in Peshawar and countless banks and shops, and looted goods and cash from commercial establishments and ATMs. The PPP-led government had declared yesterday the 'Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool' (Love the Prophet Day) in an effort to blunt efforts by hardline religious and extremist groups to incite violent protests against the anti-Islam film but observers said it had gravely miscalculated.

"The government probably thought it was taking the initiative away from the religious parties but it instead ended up emboldening them," said Omar R Quraishi, editorial pages editor of The Express Tribune, a newspaper based in Karachi, the city which witnessed more death and destruction than other places.

"The protesters must have thought that the government was not going to do anything to them as it had declared a national holiday," Quraishi told PTI.

Quraishi, like many other commentators, believed the government had ceded space on a sensitive issue and allowed radical elements to gain the initiative.

Pakistani dailies highlighted the death and destruction on their front pages. "Day of reverence or killer rage," read the headline in the influential Dawn newspaper while The Nation headlined its report "Total chaos on Day of Love".

The front page report in the Dawn said: "Friday which was designated by the government to demonstrate love of the Holy Prophet and condemn the anti-Islam video ... was hijacked by our home-grown extremists who turned it into a day of unbridled violence, killings, arson and robbery." — PTI

Film fury: 200 arrested in Pakistan

Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have arrested nearly 200 persons on charges of involvement in violent protests against an anti-Islam film even as businesses on Saturday counted the cost of a countrywide shutdown and widespread destruction during the demonstrations. Fresh protests were also held in Islamabad and Lahore. Islamabad Police chief Bin Yamin Khan said about 60,000 had participated in the protests.

Google to block Jordan links to anti-Islam film

Amman: Google has agreed to block all links connecting Internet users in Jordan to an anti-Islam film made in the United States that has stirred outrage across the Muslim world, a Jordanian minister said today. "We asked Google to block all links to this film in the kingdom and we have had a favourable response," said Communications and Information Technology Minister Atef Tel, quoted in Al-Dustur newspaper.

Pak minister announces bounty on filmmaker

Islamabad: A federal minister in Pakistan on Saturday announced a bounty of $100,000 on the head of the maker of an anti-Islam film that has sparked violent protests, shocking many people with his announcement. Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, who heads the Railway Ministry, said the reward would be given to the person who kills the filmmaker.

30 injured in clash with police in Bangladesh

Dhaka, September 22
Hundreds of activists of Islamic parties protesting against an anti-Islam film today defied a ban on rallies in Bangladesh and clashed with riot police, who fired tear gas and used batons to disperse stone-pelting demonstrators leaving at least 30 persons injured.

The protest came on the eve of a nationwide shutdown called by a coalition of 12 small Islamic groups, whose 40 activists were arrested while they were trying to carry out a demonstration against the anti-Islam film.

Witnesses said several hundred Islamists fought pitched battles with the police as they attempted to stage a street protest in front of the Press Club here, defying a ban on rallies.

The demonstrators "torched a motorbike at the Press Club and vandalised three other vehicles on the nearby street" as the clash continued for nearly an hour when police in riot gears lobbed over 20 tear gas canisters, a witness said.

The police enforced a road block on streets around the Press Club diverting vehicles to alternative roads, as smoke enveloped the area trapping a number journalists inside.

A police officer said they arrested Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan chief Maulana Shah Ahmadullah Ashraf and Islami Oikya Jote Secretary General Abdul Latif Nejami among others for violence.

The police was still keeping a vigil on the three gates of the Press Club suspecting several protesters were hiding inside to evade arrest.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had earlier this week strongly condemned the anti-Islam film. Main opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia had also joined her in condemning the film. — PTI

Islamist militia bases stormed in Benghazi, 11 killed

Benghazi, September 22
Libyan authorities today regained control of the headquarters and bases of armed militias in Benghazi after protesters had attacked them last night killing at least 11 persons and leaving more than 70 wounded.

Six members of the security forces were among those killed in the unrest that rocked Libya's second city, and were apparently "executed," a medical examiner at the Benghazi Medical Centre morgue told AFP.

The violence erupted late today when hundreds of protesters, some of them armed, attacked bases of paramilitary groups whose militants were former rebels who helped topple Muammar Gaddafi's regime in last year's rebellion.

Critics said that the militias in the eastern city have put themselves above the law, particularly those groups who after the fall of the regime refused to be placed under the authority of the defence ministry.

The protesters first attacked a group based in a security building in central Benghazi before turning their wrath on the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia, a radical Salafist militia and the main paramilitary group in the city.

To shouts of "The martyrs' blood was not shed in vain," the demonstrators pushed into the compound which was pillaged and torched, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Ansar al-Sharia has been accused of, but denied, involvement in the murder this month of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11. — AFP