Karachi, January 17 – About 200 protesters clashed on Friday with Pakistani police outside the French consulate in the southern port city of Karachi after a demonstration against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo turned violent.
A Reuters photographer said some of the protesters appeared armed with guns and he saw them firing shots after security forces used water cannon and tear gas to stop the crowd advancing on the French consulate.
At least three people were wounded and taken to hospital, one in critical condition, a Karachi doctor said. After the clashes, the protesters, mainly students from a local university, retreated to a nearby area but refused to leave, as police blocked access to the consulate.
It was the first time people’s anger over satirical cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo spilled into violence in deeply conservative Pakistan, in the wake of the January 7 attack by Islamist-inspired militants on the weekly in Paris.
A photographer with French news agency AFP was wounded in Pakistan on Friday after being shot during clashes against the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo outside the French consulate in the port city of Karachi, police said.
“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 southern Karachi, told Reuters. A Reuters photographer at the scene said that many protesters appeared to be armed.
-INDIA TODAY
