Pakistani Muslims protest reprinting of Mohammed cartoons

Mar 7, 2008, 11:23 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistani Islamists took to the streets for the third consecutive Friday to protest the republishing of cartoons in Danish newspapers depicting the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.

About 1,000 protestors chanted and yelled slogans including 'Death to Denmark,' after Friday prayers outside one of Islamabad's main mosques. They also burned flags of the country.

Protestors also demanded Pakistan break off diplomatic relations with Denmark.

'Pakistan must expel the ambassador of Denmark,' said Qazi Hussain, head of one of Pakistan's largest fundamentalist Islamic organisations.

Protestors held similar demonstrations in the southern city Karachi and the eastern city of Lahore.

No acts of violence were reported in any of the three cities but in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial centre and most populous city, police prevented protestors from marching on the United Nations offices.

The traders union in Lahore announced they would no longer sell products from Denmark, although they did not say what products they have from the northern European country.

When the cartoons were first published in 2006, they sparked protests and rioting in numerous Muslim nations including Pakistan, where a dozen people were shot dead by police.

Danish newspapers republished the controversial cartoons on February 13 to defend what they deemed to be freedom of speech after a plot to murder the cartoon's artist was uncovered.

Pakistan is an Islamic country that regards disrespect to the Prophet Mohammed and the Koran as blasphemy.