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Afghan Qur'an burning at Bagram sparks fresh protests

At least two people have been killed and 20 injured in Afghanistan in the second day of protests over the burning of copies of the Koran.

One person died in Kabul and one in Jalalabad in demonstrations where shots were fired.

There were demonstrations in Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad.

On Tuesday, the US commander in Afghanistan, Gen John Allen, apologised after Korans were "inadvertently" put in an incinerator at Bagram airbase.

US officials reportedly believed Taliban prisoners were using the books to pass messages to each other.

The charred remains of the volumes were found by local labourers.

Pro-Taliban slogans

Protesters in Kabul shouted, "Death to America!" and threw stones at Camp Phoenix, the main US base in the city.

A doctor in Jalalabad told the BBC one protester had been killed and 10 injured. Another 10 were wounded in Kabul.

Witnesses at the protests in Kabul said security guards were firing into the air. There were also reports of people chanting pro-Taliban slogans.

Demonstrators blocked the road linking Kabul with Jalalabad, one of the main trade routes into the Afghan capital.

Riot police used water cannon to disperse protesters, the AFP news agency reported from Kabul.

One protester, 18-year-old Ajmal, told Reuters: "When the Americans insult us to this degree, we will join the insurgents."

The US embassy in Kabul has tweeted that it is on lockdown and all travel is suspended.

"Everyone is emotional," Kabul resident Mohammad Naseer Malikzai told the BBC. "I am hurting and disappointed.

"I created a Facebook group where I was disputing with a lot of people. The American apology is useless."

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said he and Gen Allen apologised to the Afghan people "and disapprove of such conduct in the strongest possible terms".

After previous incidents, many Afghans find it hard to understand how US forces could have allowed the Koran to have been burned, says the BBC's Andrew North, in Kabul.

Afghanistan is a very religious country, he adds, but also one where many people are illiterate and susceptible to attempts to whip up anger.

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

The Nato-led Isaf force is now investigating the incident, a spokesman told the BBC.

"It was the local workers who discovered the nature of the material and therefore stopped worse things from happening," said Brig Gen Karsten Jacobson.

"But it was a mistake and that's what we're investigating at the moment, how did this come to be, what orders were given?

"But at the end of the day we have to stand to the fact a mistake was made and the commander apologised."

Last year, at least 24 people died in protests across Afghanistan after a hardline US pastor burned a Koran in Florida.

On Tuesday, one person was wounded and five detained after troops at Bagram, 60km (40 miles) north of Kabul, fired rubber bullets at protests.

Bagram includes a prison for Afghans detained by Nato forces.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17123464


Looks like Afghans are finally waking up.


Update for all you ignorants out there -

Most American media accounts and commentary about the ongoing violent anti-American protests in Afghanistan depict their principal cause as anger over the burning of Korans (it’s just a book: why would people get violent over it?) except that Afghans themselves keep saying things like this:



[INDENT]Protesters in Kabul interviewed on the road and in front of Parliament said that this was not the first time that Americans had violated Afghan cultural and religious traditions and that an apology was not enough.

This is not just about dishonoring the Koran, it is about disrespecting our dead and killing our children,” said Maruf Hotak, 60, a man who joined the crowd on the outskirts of Kabul, referring to an episode in Helmand Province when American Marines urinated on the dead bodies of men they described as insurgents and to a recent erroneous airstrike on civilians in Kapisa Province that killed eight young Afghans.
“They always admit their mistakes,” he said. “They burn our Koran and then they apologize. You can’t just disrespect our holy book and kill our innocent children and make a small apology.”

[/INDENT] Continue Reading



(edited 12 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Yep, blowing themselves up in Girls` schools is OKAY but burning a book is not. Welcome to Afghanistan.
Yep, being invaded by the Americans and loosing their country,culture,heroin *epic face* is ok.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 3
For all we know, the burning was just a provocative attempt to incite the Afghans.

Afghanistan is a cursed country anyway...
Reply 4
Americans taking the piss again and again do the Taliban have to suicide bomb each of these mofos
Reply 5
Original post by zubz91
Americans taking the piss again and again do the Taliban have to suicide bomb each of these mofos


Come on, not the taliban self, they use children for it
Reply 6
Original post by Veale
Come on, not the taliban self, they use children for it


well maybe sometimes
Original post by Bill_Gates
Yep, being invaded by the Americans and loosing their country,culture,oil is ok.


There is no oil in Afghanistan, get your facts right.
Original post by EssexDan86
There is no oil in Afghanistan, get your facts right.


apparently 200 billion worth of rare minerals and of course the largest heroin supply in the world.
Reply 9
Afghanistan was a war I supported it has just been handled so badly. The Taliban were awful, I suggest people read about them - indeed they were so bad that the armed forces of Iran and the USA fought together to capture Herat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_uprising_in_Herat - with the CIA directing operations in Tehran. I don't see any credible evidence that it is an imperialist venture, the war was waged for security, but clearly those involved (which is a huge number of countries ranging from Mongolia to Turkey to Romania) underestimated the scale of what they are doing in Afghanistan.
Reply 10
Original post by Bill_Gates
apparently 200 billion worth of rare minerals and of course the largest heroin supply in the world.


The minerals are currently being mined by Chinese companies, as well as Indian companies.

None of the nations involved have companies exploiting these minerals.
Original post by Bill_Gates
apparently 200 billion worth of rare minerals and of course the largest heroin supply in the world.


The minerals are largely too much hassle to be profitable to extract and as for heroin, :rofl: Are you really suggesting these are the reasons NATO went in? It was a desperate kneejerk reaction post-9/11, not some dumb consipiracy theory to acquire resources which are available more cheaply elsewhere.
Politicians obviously have no knowledge of History. Or anything else for that matter.

In particular, British, Russian and, more recently, American history in Afganistan.

It will make not a jot of difference to Afganistan whatever the occupying forces do.

At the end of the day, Afganistan will return to being Afganistan. As it was, and will always be.

And, future historians will wonder what on earth made us get embroiled with Afganistan yet again.

All that death and destruction will have been for nothing.

Politicians, exterminate them all.
Original post by Bill_Gates
apparently 200 billion worth of rare minerals and of course the largest heroin supply in the world.


Yeah, which are China's gain http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/15/chinese_takeout Also, the heroin is only grown in Afghanistan because of the lawlessness. If you wanted to grow heroin you could just as easily grow it in the UK. To suggest that over 35 countries would invade Afghanistan for a plant is unbelievably stupid.
Reply 14
Bloody so called 'heroic soldiers' PAHAHA!!!
Reply 15
Original post by Bill_Gates
apparently 200 billion worth of rare minerals and of course the largest heroin supply in the world.


Which is only being mined by Chinese and Russian companies, very few Amerian companies are involved.
Original post by zubz91
well maybe sometimes


Don't believe the Telegraph on news about Taliban lol.
Reply 17
Original post by Perseveranze
Don't believe the Telegraph on news about Taliban lol.


LOL true true.
Reply 18
What's ****ing hilarious is that Muslims dispose of Qurans by burning. Every person 'protesting' about this is a retarded hypocrite.

And if anyone is turned to the Taliban cause by an incident like this, I hope their bomb malfunctions while they are in their own home.
Reply 19
I hope every Nato, American and British troops get killed by the Taliban!

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