Tension between Muslims and Christians flared up in a Punjab town over rumours that copies of the Quran were desecrated in the US. Curfew was imposed on Monday in the Muslim-dominated Malerkotla town in Sangrur district, about 150 km from capital Chandigarh, after a mob ransacked a church on Sunday night.
Miscreants collected furniture and literature from the town’s only church and set them on fire. The mob hurled stones at the police and set vehicles on fire.
US condemns book burning
New Delhi: Condemning the desecration of the Quran by a “misguided individual” in his country, US envoy to New Delhi Timothy J. Roemer Monday said the US is dismayed” by reports about violence triggered by
these reports and appealed for calm. “I condemn such acts as disrespectful, intolerant, divisive, and un-representative of American values. The deliberate destruction of any holy book is an abhorrent act,” He said Islam had its “right and equal place in America along with all regions and always will”.