GHAZNI, Afghanistan -- Residents of Andar District, Ghazni Province, are expressing outrage after the Taliban desecrated a mosque and several copies of the Koran. Insurgents attacked and set fire to a Salihano locality mosque February 28, burning 18 copies of the Koran, Andar Police Chief Lutfullah Kamran told Central Asia Online. The incident occurred while the government was renovating the mosque, and the damage was severe.
"The government recently purchased loudspeakers, carpets and other necessities ... for the mosque," Kamran said, adding that the Taliban threatened worshippers for using the facilities. The Taliban denied involvement, but officials are holding the group responsible.
"Only the Taliban commit such acts," Kamran said. Residents doubt the Taliban's denials too. "They did not claim responsibility, but the Taliban are responsible," said Ghazni Province resident Mawlawi Abdulraman. "They burned the mosque and those copies of the Koran."
The militants attacked the mosque because the local police and the Afghan government paid for the new equipment, he added. This is the third time the Taliban have torched a mosque in Andar District, Kamran said. "They are insulting Islam under orders from their leaders."
Demands for punishment
Residents have not shied away from expressing their anger. Roughly 2,500 people protested the desecration of the mosque and the Koran at a demonstration in the district centre March 1.
They chanted several slogans such as "Down with the Taliban", "Down with the enemies of Afghanistan" and "Down with the enemies of Islam", Ghazni tribal leader Said Zekreya Lashkari told Central Asia Online. The perpetrators insulted the home of Allah and his holy Koran, said Rahmatullah, a resident of Salihano locality.
"This is not acceptable to us," he told Central Asia Online. "The government should track down whoever did this ... they must be punished." The protesters demanded swift action from the government and severe punishment for the perpetrators, one of the demonstrators, Said Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, told Central Asia Online.
Authorities are still searching for those culprits, he said. "After they are arrested, we will punish them in public. We will avenge the burning of the Koran."