Two die in Pakistan; protesters vent rage over film in several nations

TIMERGARAH, Pakistan: Two protesters died yesterday as rallies in Pakistan over an anti-Islam film intensified, with thousands taking to the streets, burning US flags and an effigy of US President Barack Obama.
About 800 people demonstrated in the northwestern town of Warai, in Upper Dir district, setting fire to a magistrate's house and the local press club before a protester was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.
Another demonstrator died yesterday afternoon after being shot in the head during clashes with police near the US Consulate in Karachi on Sunday, a hospital official said.
Up to 3,000 university students, teachers and employees marched in Peshawar, the main city of the militant-plagued northwest, chanting anti-US slogans and demanding a ban on the “Innocence of Muslims” movie.
In neighboring Afghanistan, hundreds of people burned cars and threw rocks at a US military base in the capital, Kabul. Many in the crowd shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to those people who have made a film and insulted our prophet.”
Police officers shot into the air to hold back about crowd of about 800 protesters and to prevent them from pushing toward government buildings downtown, said Azizullah, a police officer at the site who, like many Afghans, only goes by one name.
More than 20 police officers were slightly injured, most of them hit by rocks, said Gen. Fahim Qaim, the commander of a city quick-reaction police force.
Later in the day, protests broke out in other areas of Kabul, including the main thoroughfare into the city, where demonstrators burned shipping containers and tires. The crowd torched at least one police vehicle before finally dispersing, according Daoud Amin, the deputy police chief for Kabul province.
At a separate protest in front of a mosque in southwest Kabul, several dozen people shouted anti-US slogans and called for President Barack Obama to bring those who have insulted the prophet to justice.
The rallies will continue “until the people who made the film go to trial,” said one of the protesters, Wahidullah Hotak.
A number of Afghan religious leaders urged calm.
“Our responsibility is to show a peaceful reaction, to hold peaceful protests. Do not harm people, their property or public property,” said Karimullah Saqib, a cleric in Kabul.
The Afghan government has blocked YouTube to prevent Afghans from viewing the provocative clip. Officials have said it will remain blocked until the video is taken down. Other Google services, including Gmail, were also blocked in Afghanistan during much of the weekend and access continued to be denied on some providers yesterday.
In Jakarta, hundreds of Indonesians angered over the film clashed with police outside the US Embassy, hurling rocks and firebombs and setting tires alight outside the mission, marking the first violence seen in the world’s most populous Muslim country since international outrage over the film exploded last week.
At least 10 police were rushed to the hospital after being pelted with rocks and attacked with bamboo sticks, said Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Untung Rajad. He said four protesters were arrested and one was hospitalized.
Demonstrators burned a picture of Obama and also tried to ignite a fire truck parked outside the embassy after ripping a water hose off the vehicle and torching it, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky. Police used a bullhorn to appeal for calm and deployed water cannons and tear gas to try to disperse the crowd as the protesters shouted “Allah Akbar,” or God is great. “We will destroy America like this flag!” a protester screamed while burning a US flag. “We will chase away the American ambassador from the country!”
Demonstrations were also held yesterday in the Indonesian cities of Medan and Bandung. Over the weekend in the central Java town of Solo, protesters stormed KFC and McDonald’s restaurants, forcing customers to leave and management to close the stores.
The wave of international violence began last Tuesday when protesters climbed the US Embassy walls in the Egyptian capital of Cairo and tore down the American flag from a pole in the courtyard.
Hundreds of Yemeni students demonstrated yesterday calling for the expulsion of the American ambassador and condemning the arrival of an extra 50 US Marines to protect his embassy, a correspondent said. “Leave slave of the devil, leave ambassador of the Americans,” chanted the protesters at Sanaa University. “You coward American, the Prophet of God cannot be insulted.”
“Express your anger and resentment by boycotting American products,” a banner read in the latest protest. “We reject any US military presence on Yemeni ground regardless of the excuse,” a statement read out by an organizer said.
Yemen’s interior ministry announced that five more people have been arrested in Sanaa in connection with the attack on the US mission, raising the number of those held over the assault to 13, official news agency Saba reported.
Hundreds of Palestinians yesterday staged a peaceful protest in Ramallah against the film.
Participants of the sit-in, organized by the Palestinian Authority’s Waqf (religious endowment) and held outside its offices, held signs saying “We are against those who oppose you Muhammad” and “Do not touch our Prophet.”
Speaking at the event, Waqf Minister Mahmoud Habbash called on the United States to remove the film and apologize for it.
Iran’s top leader is urging the West to show it respects Muslims by blocking the film.
State TV quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying Western leaders must prove they are not “accomplices” in a “big crime.” Khamenei noted yesterday that some nations place restrictions on expression, such as banning Nazi-related sites.