This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/22/world/asia/protests-in-pakistan-over-anti-islam-film.html

The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
19 Reported Dead as Pakistanis Protest Muhammad Video 19 Reported Dead as Pakistanis Protest Muhammad Video
(about 2 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Violent crowds furious over an anti-Islamic film made in the United States convulsed several cities across Pakistan on Friday in a day of state-sanctioned protests, and the nation’s leading television station reported as many as 19 people were killed. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Violent crowds furious over an anti-Islamic film made in the United States convulsed Pakistan’s largest cities on Friday, leaving up to 19 people dead and more than 160 injured in a day of government-sanctioned protests.
It was the worst single day of deadly violence in one Muslim country over the film, “Innocence of Muslims,” since the protests began nearly two weeks ago in Egypt and later spread to two dozen countries around the world. Protesters have ignored the United States government’s denunciation of the film.  It was the worst single day of violence in a Muslim country over the film, “Innocence of Muslims,” since protests began nearly two weeks ago in Egypt, before spreading to two dozen countries. Protesters have ignored the United States government’s denunciation of the film.
The violence on Friday in Pakistan began with a television station employee dying from gunshot wounds during a protest in the northwestern city of Peshawar, and far bigger protests in the southern port of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, left between 12 and 14 people dead, Pakistani news media reported. Geo, the leading television station, was reporting 19 deaths by late Friday around the country. Friday’s violence in Pakistan began with a television station employee dying from gunshot wounds during a protest in the northwestern city of Peshawar, then was amplified through armed protests in the southern port of Karachi that left between 12 and 14 people dead, Pakistani news media reported.
The unrest came as governments and Western institutions in many parts of the Muslim world braced for protests after Friday Prayer — an occasion often associated with demonstrations as worshipers leave mosques. In Tunisia, the authorities invoked emergency powers to outlaw all demonstrations, fearing an outpouring of anti-Western protest inspired both by the American-made film and by cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a French satirical weekly. By nightfall Geo, the leading television station, was reporting 19 deaths around the country.
American diplomatic posts in India, Indonesia and elsewhere closed for the day. In Bangladesh, several thousand activists from Islamic organizations took over roads in the center of the capital, Dhaka after prayers. They chanted “death to the United States and death to the French” and set on fire a symbolic coffin for President Obama that was draped with the American flag, as well as an effigy of Mr. Obama. They also burned the American and French flags. The protesters threatened to seize the American Embassy on Saturday, but a police order banned any further demonstrations. Separate protests took place outside of Dhaka as well. Less violent protests occurred in other Muslim countries, but were exacerbated by the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a French satirical weekly.
European countries took steps to forestall protests among their own Muslim minorities and against their missions abroad. France had already announced the closure on Friday of embassies and other institutions in 20 countries while, in Paris, some Muslim leaders urged their followers to heed a government ban on weekend demonstrations protesting against denigration of the prophet. In Bangladesh, several thousand Islamist activists took to the streets of the capital, Dhaka, waving banners and torching a symbolic coffin for President Obama that was draped with the American flag. "Death to the United States and death to French”, they chanted.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls said officials throughout the country had orders to prevent all protests and crack down if the ban was challenged. “There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up,” Mr. Valls said. In Tunisia, the government invoked emergency powers to outlaw all demonstrations; American diplomatic posts in India, Indonesia and elsewhere closed for the day.
The German Interior Ministry said it was postponing a poster campaign aimed at countering radical Islam to avoid fueling protests among the country’s four million Muslims, The Associated Press reported. France closed embassies and other institutions in 20 countries while, in Paris, some Muslim leaders urged their followers to heed a government ban on weekend demonstrations.
Businesses in Pakistan closed and streets emptied across the country as the government declared a national holiday, the “Day of Love for the Prophet Muhammad,” to encourage peaceful protests against the controversial film that has ignited protest across the Muslim world for more than a week. “There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up,” said Manuel Valls, the interior minister.
In Pakistan, the streets erupted from early morning in Peshawar, where protesters torched two cinemas. Two people, including the television employee, Muhammad Amir, were killed.
Mr. Amir’s employer broadcast graphic footage of hospital staff giving him emergency treatment shortly before he died, which other Pakistani journalists condemned as insensitive and irresponsible.
Some protesters tried to reach the city’s heavily guarded American consulate, which has a strong Central Intelligence Agency component. By evening, hospital officials said at least five people were dead and more than 50 injured.
After Friday prayers, more severe violence erupted in Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan and Karachi, where normally bustling streets were instead filled with clouds of tear gas and the sound of gunfire.
Protesters in Karachi burned effigies, stoned a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet and engaged in armed clashes with police that left 14 people dead and over 80 wounded by evening.
Peaceful protests had been approved by Pakistan’s government which declared Friday a national  holiday, the “Day of Love for the Prophet Muhammad,” as part of an effort to either control, or politically capitalize on, rage against the inflammatory film, which depicts the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, as a sexually perverted buffoon.
“An attack on the holy prophet is an attack on the core belief of 1.5 billion Muslims. Therefore, this is something that is unacceptable,” said Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in an address to a religious conference Friday morning in Islamabad.“An attack on the holy prophet is an attack on the core belief of 1.5 billion Muslims. Therefore, this is something that is unacceptable,” said Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in an address to a religious conference Friday morning in Islamabad.
Mr. Ashraf called on the United Nations and international community to formulate a law outlawing hate speech across the world. “Blasphemy of the kind witnessed in this case is nothing short of hate speech, equal to the worst kind of anti-Semitism or other kind of bigotry,” he said.Mr. Ashraf called on the United Nations and international community to formulate a law outlawing hate speech across the world. “Blasphemy of the kind witnessed in this case is nothing short of hate speech, equal to the worst kind of anti-Semitism or other kind of bigotry,” he said.
But the scenes of chaos in some parts of the country as the day progressed suggested that the government had failed to control public anger on the issue. But chaotic scenes in the streets outside suggested that if the government had aimed to harness public anger on the issue, it had dismally failed.
In Peshawar, where the television employee was killed, protesters attacked and burned two movie theaters, breaking through the windows with sticks and setting fire to posters that featured images of female movie stars. In contrast, the day passed off peacefully in neighboring Afghanistan where officials had been preparing for the protests for days. Clerics at major mosques in the capital, Kabul, acceded to official requests that they preach peace, or another topic entirely; police set up a cordon of check posts to search cars, and no street violence occurred.
Television footage showed the police firing in the air to disperse the crowd, and a hospital official said that at least 15 people, including three police officers, were injured. A senior American official in Kabul said his Afghan counterparts had worked hard to mute the impact of the film through the week. That was, in part, a product of their prior experience with what he called “a desecration or religious event.”
In Islamabad, where thousands of protesters flooded toward the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave, Express News reported that the police ran out of rubber bullets because of heavy firing. In Pakistan, however, extremist groups, many of them officially banned by the government, were at the forefront of the upheavals. Karachi marchers included members of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, a banned Sunni sectarian group, Harkat-ul Muhahideen, which has fought against Indian troops in Kashmir, and Tehrik-e-Ghalba Islami, a faction of another sectarian group.
A television reporter said that when protesters in nearby Rawalpindi ran out of material to burn, they broke into several tire shops along a major road to steal fresh supplies. In Islamabad, Sipa-e-Sahaba Pakistan activists led a march toward the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave, where western missions had closed for the day. They clashed for hours with police outside the five-star Serena Hotel, before eventually being pushed back.
The government cut off cellphone coverage in major cities, while the authorities in Islamabad sealed all exits to the city after Friday Prayer, state radio reported. Some Pakistanis were relying on e-mail and social media sites, like Twitter, to communicate. Meanwhile in Lahore, activists from the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose leader Hafiz Saeed is subject to a $10 million United States government bounty, led protesters toward the American consulate, whose perimeter defenses had been breached earlier in the week.
Expressions of weary anger over the violence were common. “We are not a nation. We are a mob,” said Nadeem F. Paracha, a cultural commentator with Dawn newspaper, on Twitter. The devastation caused by the protests belied their relatively small size. The largest  street mobs were estimated to have between 5,000 and 10,000 people —  less than would typically attend a mainstream political rally, or even a high-profile funeral in some parts of the country.
Large shipping containers blocked roads through the center of several cities. Western diplomatic missions were closed for the day. Instead most Pakistanis drifted home after Friday prayers, apparently keen to avoid the trouble. Still, many analysts questioned the government’s decision to give free rein to the marchers.
The State Department spent $70,000 on Urdu-language advertisements that were broadcast on several television channels, dissociating the American government from the inflammatory film. “Pakistan is a conservative but not a radicalized society,” said Cyril Almeida, a writer with the English-language Dawn newspaper. “But when the radical fringe is bold enough, it can hold society hostage. And that’s what happened today.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it had summoned the American chargé d’affaires, Richard Hoagland, asking him to have the anti-Islam film removed from YouTube, which has been entirely blocked in Pakistan for the past several days. The government tried to control the momentum of unrest by cutting off cellphone coverage in large cities for most of the day and, in Islamabad, sealed all exits to the city after Friday prayers.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris and Julfikar Ali Manik from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

That left most Pakistanis stuck at home, many relying on e-mail and social media such as Twitter to voice their frustrations. “We are not a nation. We are a mob,” said Nadeem F. Paracha, a cultural commentator with Dawn newspaper, on Twitter.
Imran Khan, the cricket hero turned conservative politician, addressed one of the Islamabad protest rallies, and used to occasion to condemn American drone strikes in the northwestern tribal belt.“There is no end to this war,” he said.
The State Department spent $70,000 on Urdu-language advertisements that aired on several television channels, dissociating the United States government from the inflammatory film.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the American chargé d’affaires, Ambassador Richard Hoagland, and requested him to have "Innocence of Muslims" removed from YouTube. It seemed a quixotic request, as YouTube had already been entirely blocked in Pakistan for several days previously.
In a statement, Ambassador Hoagland said he had told Pakistani officials that the film represented “a deeply insensitive decision by a single individual to disseminate hatred" and did not reflect American values.
The protests largely abated by nightfall, allowing main roads in most cities to reopen, as hospital staff continued to tend to the injured. The government expressed some frustration at the day’s events.
“What kind of a love for the Prophet is this where people are burning and looting?,” said Qamar Zaman Kaira, the information minister, in a television interview, before berating the media for giving excessive coverage to the trouble.
“You should stop giving live coverage of protests,” he said testily as he spoke to a news presenter.

Alan Cowell contributed reporting from Paris; Julfikar Ali Manik from Dhaka, Bangladesh; Alissa J. Rubin from Kabul, Afghanistan; Salman Masood from Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Zia Ur-Rehman from Karachi, Pakistan, and Waqar Gilani from Lahore, Pakistan.