Pakistan Police teargas cartoon protesters

PAKISTAN: Pakistani police used batons and teargas to disperse hundreds of students protesting against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and a Dutch film said to insult Islam, police and witnesses said.

Around 800 protestors led by a student group called Islami Jamiat-e-Tulba Islam (JTI) held three separate rallies in different parts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, which is near the Afghan border, they said.

Students also burned Danish flags before they were dispersed by the police using force.

“The government of Pakistan must sever ties with Denmark and expel its envoy,” said Attiqur Rehman, a local leader of the JTI, which is the student wing of the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam.

The cartoons originally appeared in September 2005, sparking anger and protests across the Muslim world. Five people died in Pakistan in February 2006 during violent protests against the drawings.

At least 17 Danish dailies reprinted one of the cartoons in February, vowing to defend freedom of expression a day after police in Denmark foiled a plot to murder the cartoonist.

Separately in the Netherlands, far-right MP Geert Wilders has announced plans to air later this month a 15-minute film which he says will show the Koran is a “fascist book”.

Pakistan last month caused a brief global blackout of YouTube after its telecommunications body blocked the videosharing website domestically because it carried some of the cartoons.

Peshawar, Wednesday, AFP