“The people are being misused,” said Mir Ahmad Joyanda, a member of Parliament from Kabul Province. “Maybe it’s not the candidates themselves, but their agents, their people are motivating the illiterate, uneducated who are very strong Muslims and love the Koran.”
He continued: “They can say, ‘We’re defending Islam, we’re defending religion, so you have to support us.’ ”
On Wednesday, thousands of protesters carrying the white flag of the Taliban gathered at 6:30 a.m., chanting anti-American slogans and burning tires, according to Fareed, a car salesman who witnessed the clash from his showroom in Company, a neighborhood in western Kabul.
In an effort to diffuse the aggressive crowd, the police fired shots into the air. The protesters retaliated by throwing rocks at the police and beating officers with sticks, said General Khalil Dastyar, the deputy police chief of Kabul Province.
An intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with standard policy, said some of the protesters were carrying weapons and fired at the police.
A witness said about 15 civilians with severe bleeding were taken away in ambulances. “They were all shot by policemen,” he said.
Noor Oghli Kargar, the spokesman for Ministry of Public Health, said the injured civilians were recovering “in good condition.” He added that it was still unclear “if these people were shot.”
Sharifuallah Sahak contributed reporting. (Newyork times)