Three die in Jammu after Quran protests
By IANSWednesday, September 15, 2010
JAMMU - Three people in Jammu and Kashmir’s Mendhar town were killed Wednesday following clashes between police and a crowd protesting the alleged desecration of the Quran in the US.
There were conflicting accounts of what led to the deaths in Mendhar, 210 km from here. While locals said the protesters died in police firing, police sources said they were killed in a stampede after police fired in the air.
The protests were against the alleged desecration of the Quran in the US last week. The demonstrators were intercepted by police when they were proceeding towards a Christan missionary school.
The neighbouring town of Poonch where protests had broken out Tuesday continued to be tense, officials said.
Similar protests in the Kashmir Valley Wednesday led to mobs attacking a Christian missionary school and government buildings in Tangmarg town Monday. Eighteen people were killed in the valley on the day in protests initially triggered by fury at the report of the Quran’s desecration.
