Students of religious seminaries on Thursday staged a demonstration in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar to condemn desecration of the Holy Quran at the Guantanamo Bay prison by the US soldiers.

According to the local news agency News Network International, more than 100 students marched through various bazaars, which attracted a large number of traders and shopkeepers to join and eventually converted it into a rally at Soekaro square in the city center.

They were also holding placards inscribed with slogans, calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Speakers condemned the desecration of the Holy Quran and demanded of America to apologize to the Muslims.

The demonstrators later dispersed peacefully.

This was the first rally against the desecration of the Holy Quran.

The six-party alliance of Islamic groups has called for countrywide anti-US rallies on Friday.

Investigators probing reported abuses at Guantanamo Bay found that interrogators "had placed Qurans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet," the U.S magazine Newsweek has reported.

Source: Xinhua