Niamey: Thousands demonstrated across the world yesterday and violent clashes erupted in Niger and Pakistan as Muslims vented fury over a new Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) cartoon published by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Four people were killed and 45 injured in protests in Niger’s second city of Zinder as demonstrators ransacked three churches and torching the French cultural centre.
A doctor in the city’s hospital said all of the dead and three of the injured had gunshot wounds.
“We’ve never seen that in living memory in Zinder,” a local administration official said. “It’s a black Friday.”
There was also bloodshed in Karachi, where three people were injured when protesters clashed with police outside the French consulate. Among them was an AFP photographer, shot in the back. Protesters in Dakar and Mauritania also torched French flags.
Thousands flooded the streets of Bamako, in response to calls by clerics and Mali’s main Islamic body, chanting “Hands off my Prophet” and “I am Muslim and I love my Prophet”.
In Amman, around 2,500 protesters set off from Al Husseini mosque under security, holding banners that read “Insulting the Prophet is global terrorism.”
In Algiers, 2,000-3,000 marchers chanted “We are all Muhammad”.
It was the first edition of the magazine since brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi gunned down 12 people in an attack on its Paris offices on January 7 over such cartoons.
In Karachi, a police official said violence began when police prevented some 350 protesters from approaching the French consulate. Protesters in Peshawar and Multan also burnt French flags on the streets, while rallies were held in Islamabad and Lahore.
In the capital of Senegal, police fired tear gas grenades to disperse about 1,000 protesters who chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) and torched a French flag. Thousands marched chanting “We are here to defend the Prophet” in Nouakchott and some set fire to a French flag after security forces prevented them from reaching the French embassy.
In Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated quietly, some with banners reading “Islam is a religion of peace!”
Agencies
