February 14, 2006
Muhammad Caricature Watch: Thousands of Protesters Rampage in 2 Pakistani Cities
Smoke erupts from burning U.S. fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant, set on fire by angry mob, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006 in Lahore, Pakistan. Thousands of protesters rampaged through two Pakistani cities, storming into a diplomatic district, setting fire to Western businesses and a local government building in the country’s worst wave of violence against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, officials said. At least two people were killed and 11 injured.
ASSociated Press: Protesters Rampage in 2 Pakistani Cities
Thousands of protesters rampaged through two cities Tuesday, storming into a diplomatic district and torching Western businesses and a provincial assembly in Pakistan’s worst violence against the Prophet Muhammad drawings, officials said. At least two people were killed and 11 injured.
Security forces fired into the air as they struggled to contain the unrest in the eastern city of Lahore, where protesters burned down four buildings housing a hotel, two banks, a KFC restaurant and the office of a Norwegian cell phone company, Telenor.
U.S. and British embassy staffers were confined to their compounds until police dispersed the protesters, some of whom chanted, “Death to America!”
And tell me why the Pakistanis are chanting DEATH TO AMERICA when it was a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, that first published the Muhammad Carictures and very few American newspapers have published them?
Witnesses said rioters also damaged more than 200 cars, dozens of shops and a large portrait of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Vandals broke the windows of a Holiday Inn, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s.
Two movie theaters were torched, and clouds of tear gas and black smoke from burning vehicles drifted through streets in the city center.
A security guard shot and killed two protesters trying to force their way into a bank, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said, adding that paramilitary forces were deployed to restore order.
Mohammed Tariq, a doctor at the state-run Mayo Hospital, said three people were being treated for serious bullet wounds, and eight more suffered injuries during clashes with police.
The protest was organized by a little-known religious group supported by local trade associations and one of the main Islamic schools in the city. Intelligence officials, however, suspected that members of outlawed Islamic radical groups may have incited the violence.
