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South Asia News
Clashes as Islamists in Pakistan violate protest ban (Roundup)
By DPA
Feb 19, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Islamabad - Hundreds of angry protestors clashed with police in Islamabad on Sunday as Islamists violated a ban imposed by Pakistan\'s government on holding anti-cartoon demonstrations in Islamabad.

The clashes erupted soon after Maulana Fazalur Rehman, secretary general of the Islamic opposition alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Ammal (MMA), accompanied by a group of MPs reached the bustling Aabpara market in Islamabad and tried to deliver a fiery speech against the government\'s ban.

He condemned the government for banning the \'peaceful\' protest demonstrations in the national capital against the publication of caricatures deeming insulting to the Prophet Mohammed.

While Rehman was still delivering the speech, a mob of some 2,000 angry youths joined the crowd, chanting anti-Western and anti- government slogans.

A heavy contingent of riot police, which had cordoned off the entire market, fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators.

However, violence ensued as the enraged protestors attacked police with stones. But unlike during previous protests, they avoided targeting government or private properties.

A small number protestors and policemen were said to be injured in the clashes while some of the gas shells fired by the police also fell in nearby houses.

\'The tear gas shelling is so intense that it is difficult for the people even in the surroundings of the Aabpara market to breathe,\' witnesses said.

\'We will continue our protest till the responsible countries apologise and the world gives us assurance that this mistake will not be repeated as it will cause religious disharmony and chaos worldwide,\' said senior MMA member Liaqat Baloch.

Islamabad\'s administration Saturday banned rallies and demonstrations and deployed huge numbers of police and paramilitary troops in the city in view of ongoing violent anti-cartoon protests across the country in which at least five people including a seven-year-old boy were killed.

All roads leading to the city were sealed off and public transport remained off the road the entire day.

Police stopped many protestors from neighbouring Rawalpindi from entering the capital city, which resulted in another clash.

A spokesman for the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Islamist group Sunday said the authorities had arrested more than 150 activists and leaders and put its chief under house arrest ahead of the protest in the capital city.

Most arrests of JI workers and some legislators were made in Islamabad and the neighbouring garrison town of Rawalpindi and police raids were still continuing, JI spokesman Shahid Shamsi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

On Friday, the Danish government closed its mission temporarily in Islamabad and the majority of foreign staff at the Danish embassy and their families had reportedly left Pakistan.

Pakistan also recalled its envoy from Copenhagen Friday for consultations, a foreign ministry official said.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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