2nd day of protest against Quran burning gets bloody in Afghanistan

They also blocked a major highway for hours that links Kabul to Jalalabad in the east. All these angry protestors wanted to march towards the U.S embassy. But the police stopped them.

The U.S embassy was soon locked down. All its staff were told not to get out. Leon Panetta, the U.S Defense Secretary, issued an apology. He called the burning of Quran an inappropriate treatment. But Protests kept spreading in other parts of Afghanistan too. In eastern Jalalabad, several protestors were killed and injured when scuffles broke out between them and the police. They attacked the second largest U.S air base there. It is not the first time Quran has been violated.

Last year, about 24 Afghans died in anti U.S protests after a U.S pastor burned a copy of Quran in public in Florida.
Such acts have increased anti U.S sentiment here in Afghanistan.

It was not only local people who denounced the desecration of the holy book. President Karzai and Afghan lawmakers have also been outraged. They all called for severe punishments for those who burnt the copies of Quran.

And if it does not happen, we will pick up guns and fight back, protestors here warned. People here are now very angry. They are saying that such desecrations will not be tolerated anymore by foreign troops.