Death toll in Koran-burning protests rises to 23

Koran-burning protests spread to Pakistan as protesters shot dead   Twelve people were killed on Friday as protests raged across Afghanistan over the burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO military base. Riot police and soldiers were reportedly braced for more violence. The burning of the Korans at the Bagram compound earlier this week has worsened ties between NATO forces and the Afghani public,  as troops struggle to stabilise the country before foreign militaries completely withdraw in 2014.
Hundreds of Afghans marched towards the palace of Afghan president Hamid Karzai in Kabul, while on the other side of the capital protesters hoisted the white flag of the Taliban.
Chanting "Death to America!" and "Long live Islam!", protesters also threw rocks at police in Kabul, while Afghan army helicopters circled above.
Armed protesters took refuge in shops in the eastern part of the city, where they killed one demonstrator, said police at the scene.
Seven more protesters were killed in the western province of Herat, two in the eastern Khost province and one in the northern Baghlan province, health and local officials said. In Herat, around 500 men attacked the US consulate.
Anger has even spread to Afghanistan's western neighbour, as hundreds of Pakistani activists took to the streets on Friday protesting the desecration of the Book. Demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and demanded their leaders resign, while setting fire to a US flag.
Up to 300 people blocked the main Grand Trunk road in Peshawar, stomped on and set fire to the flag, and kicked a dummy representing the US and beat it with sticks while it was burning.
“The ugly face of America has been revealed with the desecration of  the holy Koran,” a banner read.
In capital Islamabad, the general secretary of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) told the crowd that the Islamic world should review its relations with the United States.
“We will not allow Americans to ridicule our religion and our holy Koran,” Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri told the crowd, asking the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to convene a special session to condemn the incident.
In Karachi, hundreds of activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, blacklisted as a terror organisation for associations with Al-Qaeda, chanted “Death to America”.
“There is just one remedy for America —jihad and only jihad,” the crowd shouted. “Death to America, death to America’s friends,” echoed slogans.
The demonstrators were carrying flags with black and white stripes and inscribed with Koranic verses.
The Koran is a religious text central to the Islamic faith. Muslims unequivocally consider the Koran to be the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.
US President Barack Obama earlier sent a letter to Karzai apologising for the unintentional burning of the texts at the air base north of Kabul, after Afghan labourers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.
“We don’t accept Obama’s apology. The Muslims don’t accept his apology, as it is nothing but a farce,” said Naveed Qamar, the head of JuD in Karachi.
“The Americans are deliberately provoking us through shameless sins,” he added.
Afghanistan wants NATO to put those responsible on public trial.
Protests have killed a total of 23 people, including two US soldiers, and have gone on for four days now.
The US embassy, in a message on the microblogging site Twitter, urged US citizens to "please be safe out there" and expanded movement restrictions to relatively peaceful northern provinces, where large demonstrations also occurred on Thursday, including the attempted storming of a Norwegian military base.
The Taliban urged Afghan security forces on Thursday to "turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders" and repeatedly urged Afghans to kill, beat and capture NATO soldiers.
Germany, which has the third-largest foreign presence in the NATO-led war, pulled out several weeks early of a small base in the northern Takhar province on Friday over security concerns, a defence ministry spokesman said.