One killed in Afghanistan protest over Quran burning

KABUL - At least one person was killed and six 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 attacks, Xinhua reported.

The protest was launched in northern Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province as part of the widespread demonstration against a Florida pastor’s controversial plan to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the Sep 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US.

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

Jones, who Thursday called off his plan, 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 to burn copies of the Quran, 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.