Pakistan outraged over Koran's desecration

ISLAMABAD, Wednesday (Reuters) Pakistan, a key Muslim ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, has voiced deep concern to Washington over a magazine report that U.S. interrogators in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Koran.

Newsweek magazine, in its latest edition, quoted sources as saying that investigators probing abuses at the military prison had found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Pakistan conveyed its deep concern to Washington over the reported desecration of the Muslim holy book, which sparked a student protest in Afghanistan and outraged Pakistani lawmakers.

"U.S. officials have stated that the alleged perpetrators of the reported desecration would be held accountable after the matter had been appropriately investigated and responsibility is established," the statement said. There has been growing public outrage in Pakistan over the report. The National Assembly, parliament's lower house, on Monday passed a resolution denouncing the reported desecration and Imran Khan, a Pakistani cricketer turned politician, last week demanded an apology from the United States.

In Jalalabad, Afghanistan, about 2,000 students chanting "Death to America" protested over the reported desecration, some of them holding up an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush and shouting "Death to Bush." Pakistan called in the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad to voice its concerns about the report, said U.S. officials in Washington who asked not to be named.