Around 5,000 people rallied here on Wednesday against desecration of the Holy Quran by US military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay prison, torching an effigy of US President George W. Bush, witnesses said. The protestors, mostly Islamic students, also chanted anti-US slogans as they left the headquarters of Jamaat-i-Islami, the country's largest religious party, and walked about one kilometer to hold a demonstration at the tomb of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. The rally was organised by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), which called it a prelude to countrywide demonstrations expected on Friday.
"These demonstrations will not stop unless US apologises and punishes the American soldiers responsible for the desecration of the Holy Quran," MMA Vice-President Ghafoor Ahmed told the participants of rally.
The demonstration follows unrest in Muslim world after a May 2 report in Newsweek magazine that US investigators had found that interrogators at the prison threw a Holy Quran in a toilet to rattle Muslim inmates. Fifteen people died in Afghanistan as violence erupted there.
The magazine last week retracted the story after its source developed doubts, and the Pentagon has said its own investigation has found no evidence to support the allegation that Holy Qurans were defiled at the prison. Still, Pakistan has said it will raise the issue with visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca, who started a three-day visit of Pakistan on Wednesday.
Comments
Comments are closed.