Fresh protests against newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad erupted across Afghanistan on Monday, with one demonstrator killed and up to four wounded in clashes, officials said.
Protesters also threw stones at the Danish, British and French embassies in the capital Kabul as well as the main base for the United States-led coalition in Afghanistan and the head United Nations office.
Police opened fire after demonstrators threw stones at them in a second day of demonstrations by more than 1&bsp;000 people in Mihtarlam, capital of eastern Laghman province, said provincial information director Hamraz Nangarhari.
”Police fired in the air in which three protestors were wounded, one of them seriously in the head,” he said.
One protester died in hospital in the nearby city of Jalalabad, Dr Mohammad Farid said. Four wounded were admitted to the hospital, he said.
Police in the capital Kabul said however that ”enemies of Afghanistan” — a term usually used to refer to Taliban and al-Qaeda elements — had infiltrated the demonstration and started the shooting.
”One person was killed and one was wounded; two police were also wounded in the incident,” Interior Ministry spokesperson Yousuf Stanizai said. Two ”vandals” were arrested.
Religious clerics among the crowd in Mihtarlam demanded the closure of Denmark’s embassy and the recall of the Afghan envoy to Denmark, Nangarhari said.
”They also wanted the expulsion of Danish troops under the Nato-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and the trial and punishment of the publishers of the cartoons in an Islamic court.”
The 12 cartoons, which Muslims say are blasphemous, first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have since been reprinted in several dailies, most of them European.
Denmark has more than 170 troops in Afghanistan, helping to stabilise the country after the ouster of the Taliban regime four years ago, and plans to expand the force this year to 360.
In Kabul about 300 people marched on Denmark’s embassy where they torched a Danish flag and threw stones at the complex, shouting, ”Death to Denmark, death to Norway, death to America, death to Bush.”
One banner read: ”We cannot tolerate any insult to our religion.”
They then stoned the British embassy, the main base for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, the main UN office and the French embassy, smashing the windows of several cars along the way, witnesses said.
Police beat protesters with batons outside the presidential palace and arrested several, they said.
Around 1 000 protesters in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif burnt the flags of France, Denmark and Norway, demanding the government cut diplomatic ties with these countries.
An Agence France-Presse correspondent said some shouted, ”Freedom of speech does not mean you can say or draw whatever you want … the enemies want to destroy Islam, we are ready to die for Muhammad and for Islam.”
Hundreds of people also protested in the southern city of Kandahar shouting ”Death to the enemies of Islam, long life to Islam”, another correspondent said.
There were also demonstrations in Takhar, Kunduz and Parwan provinces, during which windows of government offices were broken, the interior ministry said.
President Hamid Karzai has voiced ”strong objection” to the drawings, one of which shows the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban.
But on Friday, amid growing uproar in Muslim countries about the images, he urged Muslims to have the ”courage to forgive and not make it an issue of dispute between religions or cultures”.
At least 15 people were killed in Afghanistan last May in protests that erupted after US magazine Newsweek reported that the Koran had been disrespectfully treated at a US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Newsweek later retracted the story, which had alleged the Muslim holy book had been flushed down a toilet.
‘Beyond comprehension and totally unacceptable’
Meanwhile, Denmark told its nationals on Monday to avoid Muslim countries as it pursued diplomatic efforts to defuse worldwide tensions.
The foreign ministry warning, which affects thousands of holiday-makers and business executives, lists 14 Muslim countries travellers should avoid following violent protests against the cartoons.
They are Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
”I am horrified to see the way violence and attacks are spreading throughout the Middle East,” Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller told reporters on Sunday.
He said escalating protests in Lebanon and Syria were ”beyond comprehension and totally unacceptable”.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg also expressed his anger at the Syrian government, saying he would ask Damascus to compensate Norway for the damage done to its embassy, which was also attacked on Saturday.
Denmark and Norway have both contacted the United Nations, whose Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on Sunday appealed for calm.
On Monday, the foreign ministry in Copenhagen said Danes should abstain from any non-essential travel to the countries on the list.
”In recent days there have been demonstrations in many countries and attacks on Danish diplomatic representations in Syria and Lebanon. Developments have shown that the crisis could spread to other countries,” the ministry said.
Those already in one of the countries should exercise ”the greatest caution,” the ministry warned, but it stopped short of asking them to come home.
Stig Elling, head of tour operator Star Tour, told the Ritzau news agency that more than 3 000 Danish tourists who had booked trips to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco could be affected by the warning.
Around 2 500 Danes were planning to fly to Egypt in coming weeks, up to 700 to Tunisia and 200 to Morocco, he said.
”Tourism is now seriously affected by the dramatic developments in the affair of the Muhammad caricatures in the Middle East,” Danish travel newsletter Take Off said.
The foreign ministry warning ”probably means that most of the planned trips will be cancelled, and that charter planes will leave Denmark empty to bring tourists back home,” the newsletter said on its website. – AFP
