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Protesters go berserk in Peshawar
| Headline is from the original Pak Daily Times article... |
 Police on Monday arrested 18 protesters on Monday after thousands of students attacked public and private property and burned several shops here to protest the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI peace be upon him) in some European countries. The police tear-gassed around 5,000 enraged students who pulled down dozens of signboards of a Norwegian cellular firm. The demonstration was the biggest in the city since the cartoons, considered blasphemous by Muslims, were reprinted in some Western newspapers. We stayed away because the issue is very sensitive and any attempt to stop these people from expressing themselves against the issue will aggravate the situation, a senior police official told Daily Times on condition of anonymity.
| Either that or you stayed away because you're incompetents who're great at beating the hell out of one or two bad guyz, but not so good at controlling howling mobs or bad guyz with guns... |
Norwegian firm Telenors property was the obvious target of the demonstrators who pulled down all promotional signboards with the Telenor logo and messages from shops, police and eyewitnesses said.
| Danes, Norwegians, Samoans, they're all pretty much the same from a Peshawar perspective... |
The protestors became unruly after they were barred from marching towards Governors House. They then headed towards the Edwards College and threw stones at the recently constructed portion of the historical Edwards College, eyewitnesses said. Besides inflicting damage to the college building, a number of college students also suffered injuries, a senior college teacher said.
| Severe strain from all that eye-rolling, no doubt. Rawness of the throat from howling. Shoulder strain from waving their little student fisties at the skies. That sort of thing... |
Later, the protestors attacked the Peshawar Press Club smashing its windowpanes, damaging the clubs reception and offices of the president and general-secretary, the club said in a statement. Police contingent remained silent spectators during the attack, the club management said.
"More donuts, Constable Mahmoud?"
"Why, yes, thank you, Officer Ahmed!" |
The students, also joined by members of the general public, then divided themselves into several small groups with each group containing a thousand demonstrators and took to different streets in the cantonment area. One group reached Sadder bazaar at around 10.30am and began smashing windowpanes of several shops without any attempt from police to protect public property from being attacked, Muhammad Noor, a shopkeeper who had pulled down the shutter, said. Not a single policeman tried to stop the mob, which targeted every public installation including traffic signals and streetlights, he said.
"Tea?"
"Yes, thank you!... Duck!"
"Perhaps we should move couple blocks east?"
"Good idea." |
The students were joined by the Mobile Dealers Association of Bilour Plaza and later by every one present at the venue and an organised campaign was then launched against the signboards of Telenor.
| "Yarrrr! Kill the billboards!" |
Police started firing teargas shells after more than two dozens of the signboards were razed to the ground and torched. Police arrested 18 protesters but it was not clear what charges they were booked under.
| "Rioting" not being an indictable offense in Pakland, apparently. Nor destruction of property. Now, if they'd bruised a Koran, that'd be different... |
Meanwhile, protesters set fire to a shop selling products by Telenor in Attock, Reuters quoted Norways largest telecom company spokesman as saying.
| Arson's not an indictable offense, either... |
On Sunday an outlet in Attock selling Telenor products was set on fire, Telenor spokesman Espen Tuman Johnsn said. There are some SMSs going around urging people to boycott Danish and Norwegian goods in general and some about Telenor in particular, he said. Johnson said the boycott campaign had had little impact on Telenors operations in Pakistan. Telenors fully owned Pakistan subsidiary has around a seven percent market share and about 1.2 million subscribers. Telenor has 11 Norwegian nationals working in Pakistan but said it had no plans to pull any of them out of the country.
Posted by: Fred 2006-02-14 |
