ASADABAD, Afghanistan, Oct 14--Hundreds of angry villagers demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday saying that US troops had burned the Holy Qur'an. Residents of Kunar province blocked a road for several hours before parliamentarians, in their home districts for the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, were able to calm the crowd, an AFP reporter said. The protesters said coalition forces had torn and burned a Qur'an copy during an overnight raid in which they had arrested four men. The reporter saw torn pages of the Muslim holy book in the village of Kodu, which is about 20 kilometers south of the provincial capital Asadabad. The owner of the house where two men were arrested said the soldiers had burst into his house in the early hours of the morning and gone through his books. "They tied up and took two of my sons with them," the man, Char Gul, said. "They went through our books, spread them on the floor. They tore and set ablaze a Holy Qur'an and they took another Qur'an with them." An elder, Haji Mumtaz, said the raid started at midnight and lasted until early morning. "They took them with four people and they desecrated the Holy Qur'an," he said. The coalition confirmed there had been an operation and that four men were detained but rejected the allegations about the Qur'an. "The coalition force involved in this incident didn't desecrate any religious articles," said coalition spokesman Army Maj. Chris Belcher. "We respect all religions and treat the holy articles with the respect they deserve." Afghanistan is a deeply devout country and allegations of abuse of Islam have in the past touched off protests. In April 2005, thousands of people took to the streets to protest allegations in Newsweek magazine that the Qur'an was desecrated at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. Violence erupted at one demonstration, leaving at least 15 people dead and 120 wounded. Newsweek later retracted the story.The Kunar province police chief, Abdul Jalal Jalal, said it was not clear what had happened in the latest incident, and authorities had sent a delegation to the area to find out. "The Americans have not come here to desecrate our religion and disrespect our culture," he told AFP. "But if anything like this has happened, we hope that the authorities of the foreign forces penalize the perpetrators."US Captain Jason Coughenour said the allegations would be treated seriously."We respect your religion," he said. "We will launch an investigation and find out who has burnt the Quran. If it has been done by an American, we will punish him." - (Alalam News, 14 Oct 07)
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