Islamabad, Sep 22: More protests took place in Pakistan on Saurday against an anti-Islam film, as the death toll from Friday's violent protests rose to 21.
More than 5,000 protesters marched toward Parliament in Islamabad, including hundreds of women.
The protesters were chanting “We love our Holy Prophet ” and “Punishment for those who humiliated our Prophet .”
Some 500 people from Jamat-ud-Dawah staged a protest in front of the U.S. consulate in Lahore, chanting “U.S. deserves only one remedy—jihad, jihad.”
Religious groups are planning fresh demonstrations in Karachi, after the funerals of some of those killed during the protests.
On Friday more than 45,000 people belonging to fundamentalist parties and banned groups took part in violent demonstrations resulting in death of several protesters.
Four more people died overnight from wounds they received during the protests, taking the number killed across Pakistan in the day of demonstrations to 21.
Fifteen people were killed in Karachi, the country's largest city, and six in Peshawar.
Pakistani authorities have arrested nearly 200 people on charges of involvement in violent protests against an anti-Islam film even as businesses today counted the cost of a countrywide shutdown and widespread destruction during the demonstrations.
Islamabad Police chief Bin Yamin Khan said 62 people were arrested in connection with yesterday's protests, when thousands of people attempted to march towards the diplomatic enclave.
He said about 60,000 had participated in the protests.
In the eastern city of Lahore, an anti-terrorism court remanded 36 people to police custody for a fortnight after they were arrested during the protests.
Another anti-terrorism court in Karachi, which witnessed more violence than other cities, remanded some 100 people to police custody.
They were arrested on charges of violence, arson and damaging public and private property.
As life limped back to normal in cities and towns that were rocked by violence, unnamed economic analysts were quoted by The Express Tribune as saying that the shutdown due to the holiday declared by the government yesterday could have cost Pakistan an estimated Rs 76 billion.
The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated that the shutdown of industrial zones in Pakistan's financial hub alone cost the economy almost Rs14 billion.
Leading industrialists said they shut their businesses to show solidarity with the protesters but expressed frustration at the fact that the demonstrations had turned violent.
The protests resulted in 23 deaths, including 17 in Karachi, and the destruction of public and private property worth billions of rupees.
