March 10, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 1, 1429

JALALABAD, March 9: Thousands of Afghan students blocked a highway on Sunday and threatened attacks on foreign troops, in protest against the reprinting of a blasphemous cartoon in Danish papers.

Sunday’s protest near Jalalabad on the highway leading to Pakistan followed violent demonstrations a day earlier in Herat against the cartoon and a film on the Holy Quran by a right-wing Dutch politician.

Chanting anti-West slogans, the marchers in Jalalabad burnt Danish and Dutch flags de-manding the cartoonist and the politician, who plans to release his film this month, be put on trial.

“If our demands are not fulfilled, we will stage more protests and resort to suicide attacks against the foreigners,” said Ibrahim, a university student.

The demonstrators also demanded Kabul freeze its ties with the Dutch and Danish governments and expel troops from the two countries who operate under Nato’s command in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government has called the reprinting of the cartoon an attack against Islam and one official has warned it would swell the ranks of Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies.—Reuters