Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Saturday, April 20th, 2024

The Violent Protest in Parwan

Three people were dead and 25 wounded after the protests in Parwan turned violent.
Protesters started burning the shops and destroying vehicles, before they had a clash with Police. The protest was against a local Afghan paper mill that recycles paper for toilet paper and tissue-papers. Any employee of the company had seen some copies of textbooks and Quranic verses amid the pile of scrap papers for recycling. They informed the people and soon it got out of control.

Its insane to even protest against such an incident. There are security forces and police and the people can file complain against such religiously outrageous and blasphemous incidents, but in case they are deliberate. Sometimes mistake can happen somewhere. And in this particular case, it is very obvious that no Afghan or Muslim will recycle the copies of Quran for toilet paper. But sometimes it happens unintentionally. The scrap paper they use can contain any kind of writings, including books sometimes. The text book of no use always goes for such recycling purpose. But no Afghan or Muslim will ever deliberately burn a copy of Quran. In the case with paper factory of Parwan, it might have happened due to some textbook might have contained verses of the Holy Book.

In an Islamic country where Islam is a state religion, why should people even bother for such incidents. There are laws and the police can always take action on complain. The proper way for those protesters would have been if they had filed a complaint against the owner of that company, who is already arrested. Burning down private property, shops and smashing vehicles is not a protest, its violence and looting. When police gets tough after such burning, then they come on media and blame police for the violence.

A cleric has been arrested. He is reportedly responsible for the call of protest and provoking speech. We believe he should be trialed for all the violence and dreadful outcome of the killings. If protest demonstrations are held, why people burn down private property? During the fiery speeches, the Mullah has said that foreigners are responsible for the burning of Quran in the paper mill. Its extreme westernophobe with such nonsense. That paper recycling company's owner and employees are all Afghans. The Government must act on this incident and trial the Mullah who caused provocation and violence.