Pakistan sees most violent reaction to cartoons (hide the nukes, Pervez)

Reuters (UK) ^ | 2/14/2006 | Zeeshan Haider

[Dark Skies]

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Security guards shot dead two men, police used teargas on students in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave and protesters attacked Western businesses on Tuesday in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet.

In Iran, scores of demonstrators hurled petrol bombs at the British embassy in renewed protests against the cartoons and Western opposition to Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The dispute should not be allowed to divide Europe and the Muslim world, the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Cairo.

He is touring Muslim states to try to calm anger over the cartoons, published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September and reprinted in many European countries in a debate about the rights and restrictions of free speech.

Many Muslims believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet Mohammad.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said guards at a bank that was attacked by protesters in the eastern city of Lahore shot dead two men.

Police fired into the air and baton-charged protesters who set vehicles alight and ransacked outlets of international fast food companies, including McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut, and the Norwegian mobile phone firm Telenor, witnesses said.

Protesters also hurled stones at a Holiday Inn hotel and Western-owned filling stations. About 2,000 people staged a sit-in near the provincial assembly.

DIPLOMATIC ENCLAVE

In Islamabad, police fired tear gas to drive out about 400 students who stormed the heavily-guarded diplomatic enclave. The protesters reached the Indian High Commission, which is next to the British High Commission, before being driven back.

Demonstrators smashed windows of cars and a branch of bank Standard Chartered and shouted "Death to Denmark" and "Expel European ambassadors".

The protests were the most serious in Pakistan, the second-most populous Muslim nation, since the cartoons row erupted.

The diplomatic enclave is home to many European embassies and that of the United States, but not that of Denmark. It is barricaded and guarded by armed police. Extra police have been posted on roads around embassies and diplomatic residences.

Protesters tore down portraits of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and about 3,000 people shouted anti-American slogans outside parliament.

Sherpao said security forces were under orders to protect vital installations and foreign assets.

He accused organisers of the Lahore protests of not keeping their word to remain peaceful and expressed concern about plans for a general strike Islamists have called for March 3.

In Iran, the protesters, mostly religious seminary students, chanted "Death to Tony Blair", "Death to Britain" and Death to America" while hurling stones at the British embassy buildings, smashing many windows.

The Danish cartoons have been reproduced by only a handful of British media outlets. Violent protests have also taken place outside the Tehran embassies of Denmark, Norway, Austria, France and Germany.

"Insulting the Prophet disgusts us and nuclear energy gives us dignity," the crowd of about 200 people shouted. The West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons.

Cheers erupted when a petrol bomb was thrown over the high wall surrounding the embassy compound in central Tehran. Several other petrol bombs struck the wall and the embassy's main gate.

Scuffles broke out between the protesters and dozens of riot police. Stones and firecrackers were thrown at the nearby German embassy by a smaller crowd of protesters earlier on Tuesday.

Solana arrived in Egypt from Saudi Arabia where he held talks with the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The OIC is lobbying for the United Nations to include language against blasphemy in the tenets of a new human rights body.

"I cannot be very precise, but we are working on some ideas that maybe it is possible to get through," Solana said, when asked about such proposals.

Finnish police said on Tuesday they would investigate whether an anti-immigration group had committed a crime in publishing the Danish cartoons on its Web site.

[Dark Skies]

How dare the non-muslim world say that muslims and mohammed are violent! What an outrage!

[doc30]

And they want the U.N., and the whole world to 'respect' their religion. They want the U.N. to provide special protection for Islam in it's charter, thereby making Islam the only (indirectly) sanctioned religion in the world.

[Fruitbat]

The dispute should not be allowed to divide Europe and the Muslim world, the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Cairo.

Sorry Javier! But perhaps the muslim world actually needs to begin being divided over their own behavior if solutions are to be found.

Secondly there genius (javier), your world got "divided" the moment you opened the door to the spread of Islam. Read their Koran, you'll see that they don't want division either, they want to subject you! Ergo, the only solution without being divided is subjection to "all things muslim."

[agere_contra]

"Insulting the Prophet disgusts us and nuclear energy gives us dignity," the crowd of about 200 people shouted

What, in unison?

[ozoneliar]

And they want the U.N., and the whole world to 'respect' their religion. They want the U.N. to provide special protection for Islam in it's charter, thereby making Islam the only (indirectly) sanctioned religion in the world.

This is the beginning of the end. All other religions can be 'blasphemed', while Islam is on a freakin pedestal. This truly makes me sick.

[Gone_Postal]

Gee I wounder what would happen if I as a believer in Christ, decided to set cars on fire and prostested in the way these "people" are because of a cartoon ( one I might agree is a true depection of thier leader)

[michigander]

• Protesters chant slogans during a rally in Lahore February 14, 2006. Police fired tear gas to drive out students who stormed into the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave in Islamabad on Tuesday as violent protests erupted in Pakistan against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. In the eastern city of Lahore, police fired tear gas, shot into the air and baton-charged protesters who ransacked a McDonald's franchise and set fire to outlets nearby of KFC and Norwegian mobile phone firm Telenor, witnesses said. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed
  Reuters - 6 minutes ago
  
  

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• A Pakistani protester burns items during a rally in Lahore February 14, 2006. Police fired tear gas to drive out students who stormed into the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave in Islamabad on Tuesday as violent protests erupted in Pakistan against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. In the eastern city of Lahore, police fired tear gas, shot into the air and baton-charged protesters who ransacked a McDonald's franchise and set fire to outlets nearby of KFC and Norwegian mobile phone firm Telenor, witnesses said. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed
  Reuters - 10 minutes ago
  
  

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• Pakistani protestors hold sticks as they chant anti Denmark slogans during a protest rally against the publication of cartoons depicting Islamic prophet Muhammad, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 in Lahore, Pakistan. Thousands rampaged through two Pakistani cities to protest cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, burning buildings housing a hotel, banks and a KFC and breaking windows at a Holiday Inn and a Pizza Hut. (AP Photo/K. M. Chaudhry)
  AP - 16 minutes ago
  
  

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• A Pakistani cyclist walks past a burning KFC restaurant set on fire by an angry mob during a protest in Lahore. Two protestors were shot dead in Pakistan in one of the worst incidents since Muslim anger over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed erupted, as European leaders sought to defuse the crisis(AFP/Arif Ali)
  AFP - 51 minutes ago
  
  

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• Pakistani students during a protest rally. Two demonstrators died as angry mobs stormed a diplomatic enclave and attacked US fast food outlets in Pakistan's worst protests yet against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.(AFP/Farooq Naeem)
  AFP - 2 hours, 48 minutes ago
  
  

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• Pakistani students run away from teargas fired by police to disperse the crowd who gathered to protest against the publication of cartoons depicting Islamic prophet Muhammad, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 in Islamabad, Pakistan. Police fired tear gas as they chased away protesters who entered the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave in Pakistan's capital to demonstrate against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
  AP - Feb 14 6:09 AM
  
  

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• Pakistani protesters tag donkeys as head of states of Western countries during a demonstration in Karachi February 14, 2006. Police fired tear gas to drive off hundreds of demonstrators in Pakistan's capital and another major city after they went on the rampage on Tuesday to protest against the publication of cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad in several newspapers. REUTERS/Athar Hussain
  Reuters - Feb 14 5:10 AM
  
  

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• Pakistani protesters tag donkeys as head of states of Western countries during a demonstration in Karachi February 14, 2006. Police fired tear gas to drive off hundreds of demonstrators in Pakistan's capital and another major city after they went on the rampage on Tuesday to protest against the publication of cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad in several newspapers. REUTERS/Athar Hussain
  Reuters - Feb 14 5:09 AM
  
  

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• Pakistani protesters tag donkeys as head of states of Western countries during a demonstration in Karachi February 14, 2006. Police fired tear gas to drive off hundreds of demonstrators in Pakistan's capital and another major city after they went on the rampage on Tuesday to protest against the publication of cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad in several newspapers. REUTERS/Athar Hussain
  Reuters - Feb 14 5:07 AM
  
  

[TexasRepublic]

Satanic Islam rears its ugly horned head for the whole world to see. Time to blow it off!

[Dark Skies]

Thx for the great pics!

[bayouranger]

We should've let India neutralize them when they were ready to do so.

[michigander]

• Pakistani protesters wreck a car during a rally in Lahore February 14, 2006. Police used tear gas to drive out students who stormed into Islamabad's diplomatic enclave on Tuesday and protesters attacked Western businesses in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza
  Reuters - 1 hour, 3 minutes ago
  
  

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• Pakistani police arrest a protester during a rally in Lahore February 14, 2006. Police used tear gas to drive out students who stormed into Islamabad's diplomatic enclave on Tuesday and protesters attacked Western businesses in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza
  Reuters - 1 hour, 3 minutes ago
  
  

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• Pakistani protesters loot stores in Lahore February 14, 2006. Police used tear gas to drive out students who stormed into Islamabad's diplomatic enclave on Tuesday and protesters attacked Western businesses in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed
  Reuters - 1 hour, 6 minutes ago
  
  

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• Protesters wreck the property of a McDonald's franchise in Lahore February 14, 2006. Police used tear gas to drive out students who stormed into Islamabad's diplomatic enclave on Tuesday and protesters attacked Western businesses in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed
  Reuters - 1 hour, 4 minutes ago
  
  

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• Protesters wreck KFC property before setting fire to the building during a rally in Lahore February 14, 2006. Police used tear gas to drive out students who stormed into Islamabad's diplomatic enclave on Tuesday and protesters attacked Western businesses in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed
  Reuters - 1 hour, 50 minutes ago
  
  

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• Pakistani protestors smash the glass windows of a bank building after setting a vehicle on fire Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 in Lahore, Pakistan. Thousands of protesters rampaged through two Pakistani cities, storming into a diplomatic district, setting fire to Western businesses and a local government building in the country's worst wave of violence against the Prophet Mohammad cartoons, officials said. At least two people were killed and 11 injured. (AP Photo/K. M. Chaudhry)
  AP - 2 hours, 4 minutes ago
  
  

[Arjun]

thanks for saying this.. better late than never
India would be thrilled to pursue such a noble cause.