Washington: The US State Department has condemned a Pakistani minister’s offer of 100,000 dollars for the death of an anti-Islam film maker.
It said the step was ‘inflammatory and inappropriate’.
Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour had made the offer after a wave of protests against the film, which mocked Prophet Mohammad, across Pakistan and the Muslim world.
An official of the State Department said that US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ‘have both said the video at the core of this is offensive, disgusting, and reprehensible’.
“The president and secretary of state have both said the video at the core of this is offensive, disgusting, and reprehensible - but that is no justification for violence, and it is important for responsible leaders to stand up and speak out against violence,” a State Department official told the BBC.
“But that is no justification for violence and it is important for responsible leaders to stand up and speak out against violence. Therefore we find Mr. Bilour’s announcement is inflammatory and inappropriate,” the official said in a statement.
According to the report, in Pakistan, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf rejected the bounty offer.
“This is not government policy. We completely dissociate (ourselves) from this,” a spokesman for the prime minister’s office said.
ANI
First Published: Monday, September 24, 2012, 11:42