Agencies

New Delhi, May 12:

A senior US diplomat today deplored allegations of desecration of Quran by interrogators at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay and said allegations were being investigated.

“The US government deplores allegations of abuse of the Quran and is investigating specific allegation that a copy was inappropriately handled at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility,” Robert Blake, charge d’affaires, of US embassy said.

“The US and India share a fundamental commitment to the freedom of religion and

expression. Desecration of religious texts and objects is repugnant to the common values of the US and an anathema to the American people”, he said in a statement.

The statement came a day after violent protest demonstrations rocked Afghanistan’s Jalalabad over the reported desecration of Quran. It was issued here apparently in view of the large Muslim poplulation in India.

Newsweek had said investigators probing abuses of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay had discovered that interrogators “had placed Qurans on toilets, and in at least one case, flushed the Holy Book down the toilet”.

Meanwhile, demonstrators against the alleged desecration of the Koran took to the streets of Kabul today in a third day of protests across Afghanistan that have left seven people dead. Two people were killed during demonstrations in Khagyani, a town northwest of Jalalabad, while other person died in Chak district of Wardak today.

Between 200 and 300 Kabul University students rallied today in the capital.

In northwestern Pakistan, too, over 200 supporters of a radical Islamic group chanted “Death to America!” at a rally today to protest the reported desecration of the Quran.