Indian mission car attacked in Pak

Lahore: Protests against the publication of Prophet Mohammad's caricatures in European newspapers flared up in Pakistan on Tuesday with thousands of angry demonstrators storming the diplomatic enclave in Islamabad where an Indian diplomatic car was damaged and attacking US fast food outlets, banks and government buildings.

At least two persons were killed and nearly 50 injured when police fired to control the rampaging crowd that targeted McDonald's, Pizza Hut and KFC outlets here, besides government buildings, banks and a five-star hotel.

They also torched two cinema halls.

In Islamabad, the protesters, mostly students, stormed the high-security diplomatic enclave, damaging cars, including one belonging to the Indian High Commission.

Some stones were also thrown at the Indian mission but sources said it was not the target of the protesters and there was no damage to the building.

Several cars bearing diplomatic number plates parked outsides a nearby hotel, including one belonging to the Indian High Commission, were damaged by angry demonstrators, the sources said.

The front and rear windscreens of the Indian diplomatic car were smashed by the protesters but nobody was hurt, they said.

They also smashed windows and hoardings outside a branch of the Standard Chartered Bank before police dispersed them using tear gas shells and water cannon.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the shots were fired by a guard of the Metropolitan bank in Lahore and two people died.

"It is a serious development. We are grieved over the loss of precious life," he told the local Geo TV.

The protesters, mostly belonging to Islamist parties, also targeted several hotels, including the five-star Holiday Inn, and the office of Norwegian cell phone company, Telenor in Lahore.

Witnesses said police fired tear gas shells to disperse a crowd that tried to storm the Punjab provincial assembly building.

In Islamabad, the protesters also ripped down portraits of President Pervez Musharraf and visiting Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, besides demonstrating outside Parliament.

They burned effigies of US President George W Bush and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Some 200 Pakistani legislators also held a five-minute silent protest outside the diplomatc enclave.

Reports of protests also came from northwestern city of Peshawar where around 1,500 people held separate rallies and burnt tyres.