Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) Pakistanis have joined Afghans in protesting against blasphemous acts against the Qu'ran attributed to US soldiers in Guantanamo Bay. Thousands of people took to the streets yesterday throughout the country, while a country-wide day of protest is scheduled for today.
In Baluchistan's capital of Quetta, near the border with Afghanistan, about a thousand people, many of them students from religious schools, emerged from mosques waving banners and placards and marched through the city's main thoroughfares shouting slogans against US President George W. Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
During the demonstration, leaders of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, attacked the United States.
Hajj Provincial Minister Abdul Rahim and MMA lawmaker Noor Mohammad were among the protesters.
About 100 people demonstrated for the same reason in the north-western city of Peshawar.
In Lahore (eastern Pakistan), about 200 demonstrators began their rally burning the US flag and George Bush's effigy. They demanded the US government apologise to all Muslims for the "shameful act of its soldiers" and called on the Pakistani government to "stop" cooperating with the US in the war on terror.
For today, the MMA has called for a country-wide demonstration against the desecration of the Qu'ran.
Earlier, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was "deeply dismayed" and demanded an explanation, while parliament also urged Washington to apologise.