» 09/22/2012 14:34 PAKISTAN - ISLAM Islamabad, "mindless" violence on the day of love for the Prophet: 23 dead and 200 wounded The demonstrations which started peacefully, were derailed by militants and activists. In the capital, the rampaging mob burned four cinemas, six banks, four police cars, two restaurants, a lot of cars. Many buildings plundered. Several people embittered by killing "in the name of Allah." Electoral interests and power struggle behind the scandal of the anti-Islam film.
Islamabad
(AsiaNews) - "Stupid violence", "we are only hurting ourselves,"
"destroying our property to criticize a movie made in the USA",
"Shame on Pakistan: burning, looting, killing our people in ... name
of Allah! ": these are some of the comments in the " The Dawn" the
morning after a day of violence and death in the capital and other cities in
Pakistan, which have killed 23 people and wounded more than 200.
Yesterday,
the Pakistani Government had launched a "day in the love of the
prophet," to criticize the anti-Islam film made in the U.S., considered
blasphemous towards Muhammad. But
various extremist groups of tens of thousands hijacked the event to violently commit,
murder, arson and theft in Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and other
cities. The
previous day, prominent government and religious leaders urged people to
protest against the anti-Islam film in a peaceful manner. The
shock wave of violence began shortly after Friday prayers. The
demonstrations were led by various religious groups like the Jamiat
Ulema-i-Islam, Jamaat-i-Islami, Sunni Tehrik and the Majlis-i-Muslimeen
Wahdatul. They
had promised to maintain peaceful demonstrations. But
later militants and activists arrived, to incite the crowds.
In
the capital, the rampaging mob burned four cinemas, six banks, four police
cars, two restaurants, a lot of cars. For
hours they continued to loot banks and other buildings along the route of the
parade.
The
police had set up blocks and checkpoints to protect the U.S. embassy, but
soon groups of militants, armed with sticks and stones, began to attack the
police cordons. The
police first fired tear gas, then fired into the air, finally they fired live
ammunition into the crowd. Tree policemen were
among those killed.
In
other cities like Lahore and Karachi, the protesters tried to get close to the
U.S. consulate, but were pushed back by the police.
According
to several analysts, the protests sparked by the anti-Islam film has become an
opportunity exploited by religious groups to increase their influence and power
in the elections. Along
with these, there are also bands only interested in destabilizing the
government and marginalizing rival groups.
In
other cities such as Cairo and Kuala Lumpur, demonstrations were held in entirely
peaceful manner.
