Posted on 02/14/2006 12:53:13 PM PST by Esther Ruth
Muslim Mob Targets Western Businesses in Pakistan
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
LAHORE, Pakistan — Thousands of protesters rampaged through two cities Tuesday, storming into a diplomatic district and torching Western businesses and a provincial assembly in Pakistan's worst violence against the Prophet Muhammad drawings, officials said. At least two people were killed and 11 injured.
Security forces fired into the air as they struggled to contain the unrest in the eastern city of Lahore, where protesters burned down four buildings housing a hotel, two banks, a KFC restaurant and the office of a Norwegian cell phone company, Telenor.
U.S. and British embassy staffers were confined to their compounds until police dispersed the protesters, some of whom chanted, "Death to America!"
Witnesses said rioters also damaged more than 200 cars, dozens of shops and a large portrait of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Vandals broke the windows of a Holiday Inn, Pizza Hut and McDonald's.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Gee, do we need anymore evidence of how much they hate us?
excerpts....
Two movie theaters were torched, and clouds of tear gas and black smoke from burning vehicles drifted through streets in the city center.
A security guard shot and killed two protesters trying to force their way into a bank, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said, adding that paramilitary forces were deployed to restore order.
****
Raja Mohammed Basharat, law minister for Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital, said the organizers promised Monday that the demonstration would be peaceful. ==>> No one has been arrested for the violence, but those responsible would be punished, he said. (??)
The unrest began Tuesday in the nation's capital, Islamabad, about 180 miles northwest of Lahore, when between 1,000 and 1,500 people, mostly students, marched into a fenced-off diplomatic enclave through the main gate, as about a dozen police looked on.
The stick-wielding crowd charged about a half-mile down the road to the British High Commission, or embassy, where the students rallied briefly until police fired tear gas.
Outside the enclave, protesters smashed street lights and burned tires while chanting "Death to America!" and other slogans. Police rounded up about 50 protesters and put them in pickup trucks.
***
Another protest in Islamabad drew about 4,000 people. Separately, about 50 lawmakers from religious and moderate parties marched from Parliament to the diplomatic enclave, where they stood silently for five minutes before dispersing.
Hard-line cleric Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, senior leader of an opposition coalition of six religious parties, said, "We have come to the doors of the embassies to take our voice to the ambassadors. There is anger in the Islamic world. If they do not listen, their problems will increase."
People in this conservative Muslim nation have been enraged by the publications of the drawings, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September. Papers in other countries, mostly Europe but including some in the United States, reprinted them.
****
But Aitzaz Ahsan, a lawmaker with the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, said he will propose that the government call off the March 3 protest strike because of the prospect of further violence.
"It's really gotten out of hand," Ahsan said. "The violence is spiraling out of control."
I don't know about you but my head will explode if I read anymore about these cartoons.
It's funny, once the mob mentality is gone each, every one of these idiots would love to be in America and would tell you so if alone.
Brilliant. And when all western businesses are gone, you can have Allah prop up your sustanence-level economy-- he's done such a good job for centuries.
Yeah, but scratch them a little bit and I've heard plenty of them go on anti-American rants. It's always boiling under the surface.
Michael Savage may be on in just 2 hours. If you listen to his show his head will usually explode at least once during each show so yours will not have to. Sometimes it works.
I've eaten at the KFC in LaHore.....It's right next to the Telecommunications building downtown....
A year ago the bastards blew up the Marriot in Islamabad killing the doorman who I knew.......
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=108067
Pakistan police tear gas cartoon protesters near embassies
02-14-2006, 12h00
ISLAMABAD (AFP)
Pakistani students stand in front of a cloud of teargas during a demonstration against the publications of caricatures of Prophet Mohammad in western media in Islamabad. Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of students who stormed the diplomatic enclave in Pakistan's capital in protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed
(AFP)
Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of students who stormed the diplomatic enclave in Pakistan's capital in protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Around 600 demonstrators, most of them wearing school uniforms, chanted "Death to Denmark, Death to America" as they pushed past security guards and marched towards the Indian and British High Commissions.
They threw stones at the Indian mission and smashed windows and hoardings outside a branch of Standard Chartered bank before police expelled them from the barricaded and fenced-off area, witnesses said.
The mob -- which peeled off from a crowd of around 3,000 student protesters from several colleges who skipped classes and paraded through Islamabad -- also gathered outside the French embassy.
Fire trucks with water cannon mounted on their roofs also hosed down the protesters amid clouds of tear gas, while police wielding batons could be seen dragging some young people away.
"Police fired tear gas shells and the protesters retreated. The situation is under control," police officer Mohammad Sohail told AFP.
Staff at nearby embassies were advised to stay inside until the demonstration ended.
"A small group of demonstrators got inside the diplomatic enclave but they were soon dispersed. At no stage was there any danger to our staff or property," a British High Commission spokesman said.
Before entering the enclave the protesters ripped down and trampled on giant portraits of President Pervez Musharraf and visiting Bangaldeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
Shortly afterwards over 200 Pakistani legislators marched from parliament to the diplomatic enclave, where they held a five-minute silent protest.
Opposition MP Hafiz Hussain Ahmed said that if the countries where the cartoons have been published failed to take action "then the protests may spin out of control".
The allegedly blasphemous cartoons have caused outrage throughout the Muslim world since they were first published in a Danish daily last September and then in other mainly Western newspapers.
Relatively small scale protests against the cartoons have been held almost daily in Pakistan, but the demonstrations have turned more angry in the past few days.
In the conservative northwestern city of Peshawar, around 1,500 people gathered at several separate rallies for a second day of protests against the caricatures.
Police tear gassed and baton-charged one demonstration of around 200 college and university students who set up burning tyres to block the main road out of the city.
The protesters also torched an effigy of US President George W. Bush. Police whisked away dozens of students in waiting vans.
On Monday 4,000 protesters went on the rampage in Peshawar, smashing up traffic lights and hoardings advertising Norwegian telecom giant Telenor.
Witnesses said Peshawar shopkeepers were frantically removing Telenor advertising on Tuesday for fear of further attacks.
Meanwhile, traders in Islamabad and the eastern city of Lahore went on strike Tuesday following a call by Islamic parties, shutting down almost all shopping centres, bazaars and fruit and vegetable markets.
Around 400 shopkeepers in Islamabad marched towards the parliament building while protesters in Lahore held fresh demonstrations.
Pakistan's hardline Islamic parties have called for a nationwide strike over the issue on March 3.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/15/stories/2006021504431500.htm
Protests turn violent in Pakistan
B. Muralidhar Reddy
Two die in Lahore firing; 40 vehicles damaged in Islamabad
CHARGED UP: Students run away from tear gas fired by police after they staged a protest against the publication of cartoons on Prophet Muhammed, in Islamabad on Tuesday. — PHOTO: AP
ISLAMABAD: At least 40 vehicles of the Government and diplomatic missions, including a car of the Indian High Commission, were damaged here on Tuesday by angry crowds protesting against derogatory cartoons published in European newspapers.
The Indian mission car, parked outside a five-star hotel, along with several other vehicles, became the target of the retreating protesters after they were chased away by the police from the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave.
Authorities here appeared caught unawares as 200-odd students from local schools and colleges descended around noon in the high security zone and managed to break through the police barricades at the entrance of the diplomatic enclave.
Given the frenzy among the crowd the situation could have taken a serious turn but for the success of the police in forcing them back. The protesters managed to reach the entrance of the Indian High Commission, the first diplomatic mission in the enclave.
Pitched battle
The protesters fought pitched battles with the policemen in a drama which went on for over 45 minutes. They dispersed only after a lathi-charge and firing of several rounds of tear gas but not before damaging several vehicles.
According to eye witness accounts, the crowd was on the look out for the mission of a particular Western country which has been the focus of world attention ever since the publication of the offensive cartoons in September last year.
Sensing trouble outside, Indian mission officials sealed all the entrances to the building and mounted extra security to ensure that there was untoward incident.
The mission officials believe that the mission car was not targeted deliberately by the crowd and it could be a case of "collateral damage".
In Labore, at least two persons were killed and several others injured in protests against the cartoons.
The deaths occurred as a security guard opened fire to quell an angry crowd which was about to attack a bank. There were reports of agitated people attacking and torching Western fast food outlets as well as company offices in the city.
The building of Punjab Provincial Assembly also became the target of mob anger.
A portion of the Assembly building caught fire after the crowd reportedly threw a cracker inside. Elsewhere in the city, the stick-wielding protesters attacked and damaged two McDonald's restaurants and a Pizza Hut, before pelting the Holiday Inn Hotel and some government buildings with stones.
In Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier province, around 1,500 persons gathered at several separate rallies and police tear-gassed around 200 students who burned tyres to block the main road out of the city.
Well, at least they won't be getting fat off that fast food!
How do 1000's of protestors just jump up and do something like this with no intervention from law enforcement? If a few thousand protestors tried this in America, the cops would be gunning them down.
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