Protesters‚ cops clash in B'desh

ASSOCIATED PRESS

DHAKA: Scores of people were injured today in a clash in Bangladesh’s capital between police and hundreds of demonstrators, as protests continued in the Muslim world against a film produced in the United States that denigrates Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

The film has sparked violent protests throughout the Muslim world that resulted in the deaths of dozens, including the US ambassador to Libya. In Bangladesh, police fired tear gas and used batons today to disperse the stone-throwing protesters, who were from about a dozen Islamic groups.

The protesters burned several vehicles, including a police van, witnesses said.

Dozens of protesters were arrested at the demonstration and inside the nearby National Press Club, where participants took refuge, a Dhaka Metropolitan Police official said on condition of anonymity in line with police policy. Police and witnesses said scores of people were injured.

The clash erupted when authorities attempted to halt the demonstration, police said. Authorities have banned all protests near the city’s main Baitul Mokarram mosque since yesterday, when more than 2,000 people marched and burned an effigy of President Barack Obama.

The protesters announced a nationwide general strike tomorrow to protest the police action.

In Pakistan, protests continued today, with more than 1,500 people, including women and children, rallying in Pakistan’s capital. The crowd was peaceful but angry over the release of the video called Innocence of Muslims, which portrays Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womaniser and a child molester. The protesters — from the Minhaj-ul-Quran religious group — marched through Islamabad’s streets and then gathered near Parliament, chanting slogans against the filmmaker and demanding stern punishment for him.

Thousands of people also protested today in Nigeria’s largest city, Kano. The crowd marched from a mosque to the palace of the Emir of Kano, the region’s top spiritual leader for Muslims.

About 200 students in Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir, chanted ‘Down with America’ and ‘Long live Islam’ in a peaceful protest. Some carried a placard that read, ‘There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger’