Four killed in cartoon protests

BBC | February 6 2006

Four people have died in violent protests as demonstrations against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad intensify.
Three people died after police in Afghanistan fired on protesters when a police station came under attack, a government spokesman said.

In Somalia, a 14-year-old boy was shot dead and several others were injured after protesters attacked the police.

Gaza, Thailand, Indonesia, Iran and India also saw protests on Monday.

They followed attacks on Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon over the weekend. The cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper.

Monday's deaths were thought to be the first, but officials in Lebanon have now confirmed that a demonstrator died on Sunday after jumping from the third floor of the Danish embassy in Beirut to escape a fire.

Nationwide rallies

Hundreds of people took part in the morning demonstration in Afghanistan's Laghman province, in a second day of protests in the city.

The province's director of information, Hamraz Ningarhari, told the BBC that a policeman and a number of other people were injured.

Demonstrators shouted "death to Denmark" and "death to France", and called for diplomats and soldiers from both countries to be kicked out of Afghanistan.

Both France and Denmark sent troops to Afghanistan as part of international efforts in the US-led "war on terror".

"They want to test our feelings," protester Mawli Abdul Qahar Abu Israra told the BBC.

"They want to know whether Muslims are extremists or not. Death to them and to their newspapers," he said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai reiterated his condemnation of the cartoons and called on western nations to take "a strong measure" to ensure such cartoons do not appear again. "It's not good for anybody," he told CNN.

Across Afghanistan, hundreds protested in Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif, while 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Danish embassy in the capital, Kabul.

In the north-eastern province of Takhar, demonstrators threw stones at government buildings and police fired in the air.

Protests continue

In the port city of Bosaso, in the autonomous Somali region of Puntland, police shot dead one protester and three more were injured after demonstrators threw stones and barricaded streets outside international aid agency buildings.

Peaceful protests were held in several other Somali towns.

In escalating demonstrations around the world:

A crowd of about 200 people used stones to smash windows at the Austrian embassy in Tehran, and firecrackers and smoke bombs were set off

In Indonesia, police fired warning shots at protesters outside the US consulate in Surabaya, the country's second largest city. Earlier, demonstrators hurled stones and broke windows at the Danish consulate in the city, and there were protests in the capital, Jakarta

Riot police in the Indian capital, Delhi, fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of students protesting against the cartoons

Shops and businesses across Indian-administered Kashmir were closed after a general strike was called in protest at the drawings

In Thailand, protesters shouted "God is great" and stamped on Denmark's flag outside the country's embassy in Bangkok, the Associated Press news agency reported

There were protests outside the European Union offices in Gaza, following demonstrations there last week.
The cartoons first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and caused outrage among Muslims, who consider any images of Muhammad offensive.

One of the cartoons shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban.

Newspapers across Europe republished the pictures last week, saying they were defending freedom of expression.

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