ISLAMABAD, June 22: Hundreds of people burned effigies of Queen Elizabeth of Britain and novelist Salman Rushdie during protest demonstrations across the country on Friday.

Demonstrators in the capital, watched over by riot police carrying batons and shields, chanted “Our struggle will continue until Salman Rushdie is killed!”

“Britain must withdraw the knighthood and hand Rushdie to Pakistan to be punished under Islamic laws,” Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, told the protesters.

In Karachi, protesters chanting “Death to Rushdie, Death to Britain” gathered outside the Jamia Masjid Binoria after Friday prayers.

The protesters chanted that they backed comments made in parliament on Monday by Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq that Mr Rushdie’s knighthood justified suicide bombings.

In Multan, there were several protests, the largest drawing some 600 people. Members of the local paramedics association torched effigies of Mr Rushdie and the queen.

Protesters gathered in Lahore to hear a speech by Jamaat-i-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed who called for the Muslim world to stand united over the issue.

Protests were also held in Quetta and Peshawar.—AFP