Fresh Afghan protests erupt over Quran burning

0
148

JALALABAD – More than 1,000 Afghans took to streets on Monday to protest against the burning of a Quran by an American pastor, pushing angry protests into a fourth day, witnesses said.
Witnesses told AFP by telephone that there were more than 1,000 people, almost all men, protesting in Mehterlam, east of the Afghan capital Kabul.
They shouted “death to America — long live Islam,” one witness said.
“There are demonstrations. It started from Alingar district and now they’re in the city,” Gulzar Sangarwal, deputy head of the Laghman provincial council, an elected body, told AFP from the provincial capital Mehterlam.
“It’s against the burning of the Quran by an American pastor. We strongly condemn this act,” he said.
Angry protests in Afghanistan against the burning of a Quran by Florida pastor Terry Jones began in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday and have spread in all major cities.
The violence has killed at least 22, including seven foreign UN staff, and wounded nearly 140 other people.