Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images
A Pakistani demonstrator throws a tear gas shell towards riot police during a protest against an anti-Islam film in Islamabad on Friday.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani police opened fire on rioters who were torching a cinema during a protest against an anti-Islam film Friday, killing one man on a holiday declared by the government so that people could demonstrate against the video.
Mohammad Amir, a driver for a Pakistani television station, was killed when bullets hit his vehicle in the northwest city of Peshawar, said Kashif Mahmood, a reporter for ARY TV who was also sitting in the car at the time. The TV channel showed footage of Amir at the hospital as doctors tried to save him. It also showed the windshield of the vehicle, shattered by several gunshots.
The film denigrating the Prophet Muhammad has sparked unrest in many parts of the Muslim world over the past 10 days, and the deaths of at least 31 people, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, have been linked to the violence. Much of the anger has been directed at the U.S. government even though the film was privately produced in the U.S. and American officials have criticized it for insulting Muslims.
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Western diplomatic missions throughout the Muslim world tightened security, with some closing down on expectation of big protests after Friday prayers.?Cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad published in a French magazine on Wednesday were expected to compound the anger.
French officials have ordered extra security around the country and at its embassies around the world after a satirical magazine published cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad. ?NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports from Paris.
Pakistan has experienced nearly a week of violent rallies against the film in which three people have died. The government had encouraged people to protest peacefully Friday, which it described as the "Day of Love for the Prophet Muhammad."
"Our heart is crying bloody tears. We can bear everything but disrespect to our Prophet and Quran," said Akbar Saeed Farooqi, spokesman for a religious organization that helped organize demonstrations.
Police could not immediately be reached for comment about the death of Amir.
Crowds of angry protesters showed up in Kabul, Afghanistan and Jakarta, Indonesia. The violent uprising followed a deadly weekend marking the deaths of eight International Security Assistance Force members. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
The cinema where police opened fire was one of two in Peshawar that several hundred protesters ransacked and set ablaze. A similar number of protesters also torched a toll booth on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad. Police fired tear gas at the angry crowds in both cities.
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"An attack upon the Holy Prophet is an attack on the whole 1.5 billion Muslims. Therefore, this is something unacceptable," Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said in a speech to politicians and religious leaders.
In Islamabad, about 1,000 stone-throwing protesters clashed with police as they tried to force their way to the U.S. Embassy on Thursday and the government shut down mobile phone services in more than a dozen cities as part of the security arrangements.
At the consulate where four Americans died security consisted of one U.S. regional security officer and a local militia. Ambassador Chris Stevens often had little personal security detail. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.
The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan has been running television advertisements, one featuring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying the government had nothing to do with the film.
The U.S. and French embassies were closed on Friday in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Muslim population, and diplomatic missions in the Afghan capital, Kabul, were on lockdown.
'Taliban influence'
Police in Kabul said they had been in contact with religious and community leaders to try to prevent violence.
"There are some angry demonstrators who will encourage people to violence," senior police officer Mohammad Zahir told Reuters. "There will also be Taliban influence in demonstrations too and they may attack the U.S. and other embassies."
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The cartoons in France's Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly have provoked relatively little street anger, although about 100 Iranians demonstrated outside the French Embassy in Tehran.
Up to 1,000 protesters were expected at the first demonstrations in Germany against the anti-Islam film.
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Protests ignited by a controversial film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad spread throughout Muslim world.
Western embassies tightened security in Sanaa, fearing the cartoons could lead to more unrest in the Yemeni capital where crowds attacked the U.S. mission last week over the anti-Islam film.
In Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolts, the Islamist-led government decreed a ban on protests planned on Friday against the cartoons.?
An Islamist activist called for attacks in France to avenge the perceived insult to Islam by the "slaves of the cross."
In Libya, where militias that helped overthrow Moammar Gadhafi still wield much power, the foreign minister offered a further apology for U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens' death to visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns on Thursday.
The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News' Andy Eckardt contributed to this report.
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