Afghanistan's top religious council Friday demanded that those responsible for the burning of Holy Qurans at a US military base should be put on public trial. The call from the Ulema Council came just hours before a report in The Washington Post claimed that five US soldiers took part in the burnings last week, which sparked deadly protests across Afghanistan.
Citing US military officials, the Post said an investigation had established that the soldiers removed the Holy Qurans from a prison at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, after they were found to contain extremist messages. The books were placed in an office for safekeeping, only to be mistaken for garbage and taken to a landfill where Afghan employees identified them as Holy Qurans just as the pages caught fire, according to the investigation.
However, despite the call from the Ulema Council, the military officials said that while the five soldiers would face reprimand, it was unlikely their names would be released or that they would be put on public trial, the Post reported on its website.