One dies in Afghanistan protest over Quran burning

KABUL - One person was killed and six others were injured in Afghanistan Friday in a protest over a US pastor’s plan to burn the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack, a media report said.

Thousands of people gathered in Fayzabad in the northern province of Badakhshan to protest against the call by Terry Jones, the pastor at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, who was planning to conduct an “International Burn a Quran Day” Saturday, on the ninth anniversary of the Sep 11, 2001, terrorist attack in the US.

Clashes took place during the demonstration causing the death of a civilian, while six people including four police personnel were injured, provincial police chief Syed Safoi was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Safoi, however, rejected reports by local people who said troops of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had opened fire at the protesters.

US President Barack Obama and Defence Secretary Robert Gates have urged Terry Jones to call off the Quran burning event.

Jones, who Thursday called off his plan, said he was “rethinking” his position after being told that there was no deal on moving the proposed Islamic center from near New York’s ground zero where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood.

Jones cancelled his plan, based on what he said were assurances from a local Muslim leader that the Islamic center in New York would be moved - an assertion rejected by the center’s visionary in New York.