A photographer for AFP, Asif Hasan, has been shot at a protest against Charlie Hebdo in Karachi, Dawn reports.
A protest organised by Islami Jamiat Talaba’s Karachi chapter on Friday turned violent when a clash took place between protesters and police. Security forces resorted to aerial firing, tear gas and water cannons to push back the charged mob.
Three party workers, who were affected by tear gas, have been transferred to the nearest hospital.
Agence France-Presse photographer, Asif Hasan, was shot while covering the rally.
“AFP photographer Asif Hasan suffered wounds resulting from gunshots fired by…protesters, police have not opened fire,” Abdul Khalique Shaikh, a senior police officer in Karachi, told Reuters.
“The bullet struck his lung, and passed through his chest. He is out of immediate danger and he has spoken to his colleagues,” Doctor Seemi Jamali, a spokeswoman for Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital where Hassan was taken, told AFP.
Dawn explains about the protest.
Hundreds of people had gathered at Teen Talwar to register their protest over the publication of a blasphemous cartoon disrespecting Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
It’s not a “blasphemous” cartoon because the cartoonist and the magazine don’t subscribe to the system of taboos and exclusions that label it “blasphemous.” It’s “blasphemous” only to people who do subscribe to that system. And the cartoon didn’t “disrespect” the self-proclaimed “prophet” – it portrayed him as far more of a mensch than his nightmarish defenders. And never mind peace be upon him; how about peace for the rest of us? How about an end to the war on the rest of us that’s being carried on by his worst followers?
Today’s rally was aimed at registering its protest outside the French Consulate building. City police had blocked all the roads leading to the consulate and had stopped protesters from marching towards the consulate. The protesters were seen carrying batons.
The rally comes a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif led Parliament in condemning the cartoons.
Oh shut up. Act like adults. Have some self-respect.
Rallies are also being carried out in the capital Islamabad and the eastern city of Lahore against the controversial cartoons.
Religio-political groups of all schools of thought are observing today as a black day against the French magazine. The Tehreek Hurmat-i-Rasool, a conglomerate of 20 plus groups, Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamatud Dawa, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Sunni Tehreek and Sunni Ittehad Council also announced on Thursday launching a countrywide protest movement against the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo.
Maybe if they unite they can persuade the government to nuke Paris. You know they want to.