Afghan demonstration praises Charlie Hebdo attackers

Hundreds of people marched in southern Afghanistan praising the two gunmen who killed 12 people at the French weekly Charlie Hebdo, Afghan officials said on Saturday.

The demonstration in Chora district in the insurgency-hit Uruzgan province followed Friday prayers at a local mosque where the prayer leader Zain-Ul-Haq asked worshippers to rally in support of the two French attackers who he praised as "true mujahideen", according to one of the protesters who talked to AFP.

"The demonstrators were praising the attackers for killing the cartoonists who had disrespected the Prophet Mohammed," Dost Mohammad Nayaab, the spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP.

Afghan demonstrators shout anti-US slogans during a protest against Koran desecration in Kabul on February 24, 2012 ©Shah Marai (AFP/File)

The demonstrators also lashed out at Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who on Thursday condemned the deadly attack on the French satirical magazine, Nayaab said.

"We went out to district centre to praise the two true mujahideen who killed infidels who had insulted the holy prophet," said Mulla Abdul Bari one of the participants of the Friday demonstration.

"We also demanded President Ashraf Ghani to withdraw his condemnation of the attack. Those who insult the holy prophet deserve death punishment" he said.

In his statement, Ghani had said: "Killing of defenceless people and civilians is a heinous act of terror, there is no justification for this heinous act".

Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative culture, especially in rural areas where Taliban hold sway, thirteen years after their Islamist regime was toppled in a US-led invasion.