Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Karzai's Kandahar Delegation Attacked; Protestors Burn Obama Effigy

Gunmen opened fire on the Afghan President's delegation sent to investigate the Kandahar killings as the group left a mosque in the Panjwai district on Tuesday morning, according to Afghan officials.

No one from the delegation - which included two of Karzai's brothers - was hurt; however a male civilian who was outside the mosque was shot in the leg, Abud Rahim Ayoubi, a member of Afghan parliament from Kandahar told TOLOnews.

The delegation includes Karzai's brothers, Shah Wali Karzai and Qayuom Karzai, Tooryalai Wisa, the governor of Kandahar, and Asadullah Halid, Minister of Tribal and Border Affairs.

Shah Wali Karzai is head of the Karz district in Kandahar, and Qayoum Karzai is a member of the Kandahar provincial council.

The delegation was inside a mosque in the Panjwai district meeting with locals about the shooting of 16 civilians by a US soldier on Sunday.

The gunmen - said to be "several" - fled immediately after firing the shots. None of them have been apprehended and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, hundreds of university students in eastern Afghanistan turned out for a demonstration on Tuesday against the Kandahar killings.

Students burned a makeshift effigy which they said represented US President Barack Obama while chanting slogans such as "Death to America", according to TOLOnews reporter who was in the area.

Nangahar provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai confirmed the reports.

Although the protest held up traffic on the Kabul-Jalalabad highway for a few hours, there were no reports of violence.

Afghan security personnel were present at the demonstration which lasted from around 8am until the students dispersed by 12pm.

Afghan Members of Parliament also protested the Kandahar shooting for a second day in Kabul by walking out of Tuesday's sitting session early.

MPs suspended the House of Representative sitting on Monday after calling for those responsible for Sunday's attack on Afghan civilians to be tried under Afghan law.

from TOLONEWS
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