KABUL - A second day of violent, anti-American protests spread across Afghanistan yesterday, as demonstrators seethed over the burning of Korans at a NATO air base and Afghan politicians demanded harsh punishment for the offenders.
At least seven Afghans were killed and dozens were injured, according to the Interior Ministry, when protesters gathered in several cities across the country, throwing stones, burning tires, and lighting effigies of President Obama. One crowd of men attempted to storm a fortified compound in Kabul where hundreds of American contractors live.
Security forces tried to quell the scattered protests - in some cases by firing on demonstrators - but the unrest showed no sign of dissipating.
In an Afghan parliamentary session, lawmakers backed demonstrators’ demands that the offenders be tried in an Islamic court, applying early pressure on President Hamid Karzai to act swiftly and assertively in meting out punishment.
The Parliament issued “a resolution strongly condemning this act and demanded punishment of the culprits,’’ said Nazeefa Zaki, a lawmaker representing Kabul. Some members of Parliament said the Koran burning was intended as an insult to Afghans. Others urged security officials and soldiers to wage holy war against Americans, a sentiment commonly expressed at the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, Afghan and NATO officials began a joint investigation into the incident, which has prompted apologies from top US officials in Kabul and Washington and has fueled concerns that the outrage could threaten stability during a critical time in the war.
NATO and Afghan officials visited the Parwan Detention Facility, adjacent to Bagram Airfield, where the incident occurred, to “examine the circumstances surrounding the disposal of religious materials there,’’ according to a press release from NATO-led forces.
“The purpose of the investigation is to discover the truth surrounding the events which resulted in this incident,’’ said General John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan. “We are determined to ascertain the facts and take all actions necessary to ensure this never happens again.’’
German Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, chief spokesman for the NATO-led coalition, said officials were urgently trying to determine how many Korans and other religious texts were burned, and why. Answers to those questions, he said, would be necessary to prevent the public response to the “grave incident’’ from spiraling further out of control.
Western officials said publicly Tuesday that the books were taken to the incinerator by accident. “I assure you . . . I promise you . . . this was NOT intentional in any way,’’ Allen said in a statement. But a senior US military official, who asked to remain anonymous, said Tuesday that the Korans were removed from the prison library because they had radical or anti-Western messages scrawled in them. Jacobson did not confirm that assertion, but his comments to reporters yesterday came closer to blaming poorly advised military officials.
Afghans, including the investigators appointed by the government, are split over whether the burning was, in fact, unintentional or whether it reflected baser motives.
“We hope it was an accident, and we think it was,’’ said Siddiq Siddiqi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. “But at the end of the day, the investigation might find that it was a crazy person - that he was mad and that he did this on purpose.’’
For his part, Karzai seemed keen on using the incident to advance his case that Afghans should take over the Parwan facility, the largest US-run military prison in the country.
“The sooner you do the transfer of the prison, the less you will have problems and unfortunate incidents,’’ Karzai said at a meeting yesterday with US Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, according to a statement from Karzai’s office.
Last month, Karzai demanded that responsibility for the detention center be handed over to Afghanistan by the end of January. He has since extended that deadline until March 9. But US officials continue to say Afghan institutions are woefully unprepared to detain or try suspected terrorists.