AFP/Karachi
Hundreds of Pakistani students protesting against a French magazine for publishing cartoons of the Prophet stormed a Christian boys’ school demanding it close, officials and police said yesterday.
Four students were slightly hurt in the incident in the northwestern town of Bannu on Monday, which happened as students from local colleges and schools demonstrated against the cartoons printed in French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
“A group of some 200 to 300 protesting students entered Panel High School after jumping its outer walls and forcibly opened the gates,” said school principal Fredrick Farhan Das.
He said the students who wanted the school to be shut damaged the property and smashed windows. “This caused kind of a stampede, which slightly injured four students,” Das said.
He said the school remained closed yesterday in protest against the incident and will re-open today.
District police officer Abdul Rashid Khan confirmed the incident but said it was not thought to be an anti-Christian attack.
Under Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws, insulting the prophet can carry the death penalty, and the country’s prime minister and parliament have strongly condemned the publication of the cartoons.
Pakistani Islamists carry placards during a protest against satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Lahore yesterday.
