Search launched for elements behind violent protest

SHIBERGHAN (Pajhwok): Security officials in northern Jawzjan province on Tuesday said search operation has been launched for the individual who resorted to violence at a peaceful protest a day earlier.

Police officer Abdul Manan Raufi said security reinforcements had been dispatched to Qarqin to break up the protest that was still in progress around the district headquarters.

At least three people were killed and six others injured on Monday when the protest turned violent. Security forces stopped some people from crossing the Amu River into Turkmenistan. A fourth man succumbed to his injures at hospital today.

Some enraged people staged a protest and tried to storm police and district headquarters, said Deputy Governor Abdul Rahman Mahmoodi. He told Pajhwok Afghan News militants had penetrated the protestors and they attempted to disarm policemen.

Residents of Qarqin and Kham Ab districts have long been crossing the river into Turkmenistan in search of herbal plants used in medicines. The river is an international boundary between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.

Dr. Mohammad Haroon Arif Elbegi, the public health director, said two of the injured were in critical conditions.

nh/mud