KABUL: Two people were killed when violence broke out at an anti-Charlie Hebdo protest in the Afghan capital on Saturday, according to witnesses, but Kabul’s police chief said there were no deaths and only two injuries.
Around 500 protesters streamed into an eastern part of the city, putting residents of nearby international compounds on a state of alert.
Police sources said the protest turned violent when demonstrators attacked policemen with burning tires, stones and then gunfire.
A man who gave his name only as Moshtaq, pointing at a pool of blood in the road, said one protester “was shot in the head and his dead body was there. And I saw one more dead body in a car.”
Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi told reporters “there were some irresponsible armed men among them who opened fire on police. Primary reports show that two protesters were wounded.”
Protests against the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s anti-Islam cartoons have erupted around the world and taken place weekly in the Afghan capital.
Violent Kabul clashes claim 2 lives
