Thousands of people mounted furious protests after dozens of Qurans were burned in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, leaving several officers injured, police say.
Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse a crowd of “at least 10,000 people” overnight from Sunday to Monday as they tried to attack the two men accused of destroying the holy books, police officer Ajbahar Ali Shaikh tells AFP.
Another police officer says at least 14 policemen were injured in the clashes, but did not have details of injuries among protesters.
The two men were arrested in the northeastern city of Sylhet — one of the most conservative parts of Bangladesh — and said that they had burned the Qurans as they were “very old and some had printing mistakes.”
Shaikh, naming the accused as school principal Nurur Rahman and Mahbub Alam, said police had “seized 45 copies of the burned Quran.”
Some Muslim scholars say disposing of a Quran that is no longer usable is permissible if done respectfully.
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