Police fire at protestors in Nangarhar, one dead

JALALABAD (PAN): Police opened fire on people protesting against the killing of a 12-year-old boy by foreign troops in the Hesrak district of eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, killing one person and injuring at least seven others, officials and the protestors said.

The young son of a police officer was killed when foreign troops raided their house on Friday night in the district. Hundreds of residents of the district in the morning took to the streets to denounce the killing. They brought the dead body to the district headquarters.

Dilwar, one of the protestors, said nearly 500 people took part in the protest. They chanted slogans against foreign troops. “As we reached near the district headquarters building, police opened fire on us,” he said, adding one person was killed and six others were wounded.

The district development council head, Naeem Walar, accused police of deliberately firing at the protestors. He confirmed one person was killed and seven others were wounded, who were taken to a hospital in Jalalabad, the provincial capital.

The district chief, Haji Abdul Khaliq Maroor, said some militants who had infiltrated the protesters wanted to attack the district headquarters. The police opened fire after the protest turned violent, he said. However, he said he had no information about casualties.

The killing of civilians by foreign troops is a major source of friction between President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers, and complicates efforts to win support from ordinary Afghans for the war against the Taliban.

Hesarak borders Kabul province and lies some 70 km (40) miles southeast of the capital.

In a statement issued early on Saturday, the NATO) said its troops had mistakenly killed a 15-year-old boy during an operation with Afghan forces to capture a Taliban insurgent in Hesarak.

The teenager’s killing was the second such incident this week. On Thursday, Afghan and foreign troops killed a policeman and a girl during a raid on their compound in Nangarhar.

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