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Two dead in Afghan protest. 31/05/2005. ABC News Online

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1380916.htm]

Last Update: Tuesday, May 31, 2005. 11:33am (AEST)

Two dead in Afghan protest

Two Afghans were killed and 33 others wounded in violent protests against a local official in the war-shattered country's north-east, local authorities said.

NATO-led peacekeeping forces said they sent out two F-16 fighter jets to the scene of the demonstrations in Rustaq district of remote Takhar province.

"There were demonstrations today against the district chief of education, accused by some people to have stolen money to students," provincial governor Qazi Mohammed Kabir Marzban told AFP.

"Two people were killed and 33 injured in fights between people. We sent a delegation there, and hope that there will not be more demonstrations tomorrow."

There was no indications that the riots were linked to the worst anti-US protests since the fall of the Taliban which left 15 people dead across Afghanistan earlier this month.

Those demonstrations were against a Newsweek report, which the magazine later retracted, that the US military in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba had desecrated copies of the Koran.

- AFP



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