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Pakistanis burn down kfc restaurant { June 1 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,1496267,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,2763,1496267,00.html
Six die in KFC restaurant during riots
Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Wednesday June 1, 2005
The Guardian
Six people died inside a blazing Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Karachi during riots sparked by Pakistan's second sectarian suicide bombing in four days.
A furious crowd of Shia Muslims surrounded the American fast food franchise on Monday night, hours after Sunni extremists attacked a mosque in the port city, killing five.
Customers and staff leapt to safety through windows but four KFC employees trapped inside burned to death. Another two suffocated after seeking refuge in the refrigeration room, rescuers said.
"They thought they would be safe but when the building started to burn there was nowhere to run," said Anwar Kazmi of the Edhi ambulance service. The mob also torched shops, vehicles and at least two petrol stations.
The Shias targeted KFC because of America's close alliance with President Pervez Musharraf, whom they accuse of failing to protect them from attacks. Anti-US sentiment is also running high since reports of Qur'an desecration at Guantánamo Bay.
KFC outlets in Pakistan are decorated in the colours of the stars and stripes and feature giant images of the chain's founder, Colonel Sanders.
"For the Shias the west represents an elite that is allied to an hostile regime," said Samina Ahmed, south Asia director of the International Crisis Group.
More than 160 people have died in six attacks on mosques or religious festivals in the past year. Five bombings targeted Shias while one - a car bomb that killed 40 - was aimed at Sunnis.
The violence has increased sharply this past week. On Friday a blast tore through a crowd of Shia pilgrims at a religious festival in Islamabad, killing 20. On Monday three militants attacked the Mandinatul Ilm mosque in Karachi, exploding a bomb that killed five and wounded 26.
Rauf Siddiqi, the home minister for Sindh province, said security had been put on "high alert" for a number of Shia funerals due yesterday.
In the provincial capital, Karachi police ordered mosques to shut their doors during prayers.
The influence of al-Qaida is fuelling the carnage. The Sunni extremists are led by jihadis who were trained in Afghanistan in the 1980s and divided Kashmir in the 1990s, when they were backed first by the US, then by Pakistan.
Now the extremists have become allied with al-Qaida militants sheltering in Pakistan, and have turned their sights on the US-allied government and the Shia minority. Police said Monday's mosque attack was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed, an outlawed militant group. "They are conducting two jihads - one against the west, and one against Pakistanis they consider as non-Muslims," said Ms Ahmed.
But such violence preoccupies only a small minority. The mushrooming of US fast food outlets, including McDonald's and Pizza Hut, is seen as an indicator of growing business confidence.
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