Cleric offers $1 million reward for killing cartoonist

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Pakistani Muslim cleric said Friday that he and supporters were offering rewards of more than $1 million for killing Danish cartoonists who drew caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Maulana Yousef Qureshi, a cleric in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said during Friday prayers that he personally had offered to pay a bounty of 500,000 rupees ($8,400), while a jewelers association was putting up $1 million, and others were offering $17,000 plus a car.

Qureshi repeated the offer at rally later in the city to protest against the cartoons. "If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden ... we can also announce reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy prophet," Qureshi told Reuters, referring to the $25 million U.S. bounty on the al-Qaida leader's head.

He apparently did not realize that 12 cartoonists, not one, drew the drawings that have led to protests across the Muslim world. Earlier this month a Taliban commander in Afghanistan was reported as offering a bounty of 220 pounds of gold to anyone who killed a cartoonist who drew the pictures. The commander, Mullah Dadullah, also offered 12 pounds of gold to anyone who killed a Danish, Norwegian or German soldier. Protests over the cartoons have turned violent in several Pakistani cities this week and at least five people have died.

Source: [MSNBC]

125 arrested

Also on Friday, police detained 125 protesters for violating a ban on rallies in eastern Pakistan and put a radical Islamist leader under house arrest, amid fears of more deadly demonstrations. Police were ordered to restrict the movement of all religious leaders who might address any rallies and round up religious activists "who could be any threat to law and order," a senior police official said in the main eastern city of Lahore.

In Multan, another city in Punjab province, about 300 police swooped down on 125 protesters who had gathered Friday morning at a traffic circle, calling themselves "slaves of the prophet" and trampling on a Danish flag, said Sharif Zafar, a police official. Protesters shouted "Death to Musharraf!" as they were bundled into two police buses, referring to Pakistan's leader, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Zafar said they were being taken to a police station because they were violating a ban on rallies in Punjab -- imposed after deadly riots in Lahore on Tuesday. In Karachi, police fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse about 2,000 protesters, many wielding sticks, who blocked the main highway into the southern city, said Alim Jafari, a Karachi police official. The road was cleared and some 30 protesters were detained, he said.

Protests in Pakistan against the cartoons have turned violent this week. Five people have died in riots, and Western businesses have been vandalized and burned.

Wide protests

Demonstrations broke out in Muslim countries after newspapers in several European countries reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that were first published in Denmark in September. Islamic tradition frowns on any depiction of Muhammad, and the satiric nature of some of the Danish cartoons -- such as one showing Muhammad's turban as a bomb -- further inflamed some Muslims.

In Hong Kong, thousands of Muslims, mostly Pakistanis, Indians, Indonesians and Sri Lankans living in the territory, angrily chanted slogans as they marched from a downtown mosque to the local office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

"Don't play with our religion," read a placard held up by a protester. "No double standards. We want justice!" read another. Ghulam Mustafa, one of the organizers, said more than 3,000 people participated in the protest. Police put the figure at about 2,000. The crowds dispersed peacefully after march leaders presented a U.N. representative with a petition condemning the cartoons as sacrilegious.

In Bangladesh, about 500 protesters marched through streets outside Dhaka's main mosque, chanting "Down with Islam's enemies." In Lahore, a spokesman for the radical group Jamaat al-Dawat said a heavy contingent of police arrived at the home of its leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, on Friday morning and told him he could not go outside. He was due to make a speech in Faisalabad, about 75 miles away, said the spokesman, Yahya Mujahid.

Lahore police chief Khawaja Khalid Farooq said 12,000 police and an unspecified number of paramilitary troops were guarding government and foreign installations, mosques and other public places like shopping centers, restaurants and cinemas.

Supporters of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest Islamic group, also planned to hold rallies in Karachi after midday prayers Friday, said Sarfaraz Ahmed, a spokesman for the anti-U.S. group.

More anti-cartoon protests were expected Friday in other Pakistani cities, including Rawalpindi, Quetta and Peshawar -- the northwestern city ravaged by riots on Wednesday. Police were guarding multinational businesses and government buildings, witnesses said.