ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistani security forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners, virtually sealed off the capital and used gunfire and tear gas Sunday to quell protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
In keeping with the pattern elsewhere in Pakistan, protesters directed as much of their anger at President Pervez Musharraf and his main Western ally, the United States, as they did at the newspaper cartoons and the Danish newspaper that printed them. “America has a dog in uniform!” they shouted in mocking reference to Musharraf’s dual role as president and army chief of staff.
Young men wearing headbands emblazoned with Islamic slogans raced through the streets shouting, “God is Great!” and occasionally pausing to ease the sting of tear gas with handkerchiefs soaked in water. Police charged the crowds with batons and plastic shields and sometimes pelted protesters with the same stones that had been hurled at them.
Eastern Pakistan had banned protests after riots killed five people in two cities last week.
Elsewhere in the Muslim world on Sunday, demonstrators with wooden staves and stones tried unsuccessfully to storm the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, while tens of thousands rallied in the Turkish city of Istanbul and complained about negative Western perceptions of Islam.
Troops patrolled the deserted streets of the northern Nigerian town of Maiduguri, where thousands of Muslims attacked Christians and burned churches Saturday, killing at least 15 people during a protest over the cartoons. Most of the victims were beaten to death by rioters.
In Saudi Arabia, newspapers ran full-page apologies by Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first ran the caricatures in September. The newspaper’s Web site said businesses placed the ad on their own initiative, using an apology issued by the newspaper late last month. It did not identify the companies or say if they were Danish.
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