By IANS,
Kandahar : At least nine people were killed and over 70 others injured as thousands of people staged an angry demonstration in Kandahar city Saturday to condemn the reported burning of the Quran in the US, Kandahar’s provincial administration said.
Protesters hurled stones towards police, who in return opened fire to disperse them, Xinhua reported, quoting the official statement of the provincial administration.
The victims were hit by stones or suffered bullet injuries, doctors said.
The official statement also blamed the vested interest groups who set fire to public and private properties, including shops and vehicles, and turned the demonstrators violent.
Several classrooms of a girls’ school were also set ablaze by the vested interests group during the demonstration, the statement said.
A priest of a Church in Florida, US, burned the Quran recently, media reports said.
Personnel of law enforcing agencies have arrested 16 people from among the demonstrators, seven of them armed with weapons, the Kandahar’s provincial administration said.
Similar demonstration was also staged in the Taliqan city, the capital of northeast Takhar province Saturday. But after condemning the reported burning of the Quran, the demonstrators dispersed peacefully.
Thousands of protesters in a similar demonstration held in Afghanistan’s northern Mazar-e-Sharif city Friday resorted to violence and stormed UN compound, during which 11 people were killed and 23 others were injured.