Washington: The US and Afghanistan have
completed their joint fact-finding investigation into the
incident of desecration of the Quran by US soldiers last
month, the Pentagon has said.
However, no decision has been made yet on making it
public, the Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt John Kirby, told
reporters during an off camera news conference yesterday.
The joint investigation, however, found the holy text
books were disposed in an improper manner, he said.
It also found that there were written notes inside the
books, Kirbi said, adding that the report has recommended
potential disciplinary action against those responsible for
desecration of Quran.
"Joint investigation is complete," Kirby said, adding
there has been no decision by both side to make that
investigation public. We did talk in general about some of the
major findings," he said.
"Major findings were that disposal processes of these
religious texts were improperly begun. But it wasn`t the
malicious act with intent to show disrespect for the people of
Afghanistan or Islam," Kirby said.
"They did find there were some US personnel who did
improperly treat these religious texts including some of the
supervisory work personnel," he added.
"It recommended that they be reviewed for potential
disciplinary action," Kirby said in response to a question.
The joint investigation, he said: "did find that there
were written notes in some of these religious texts."
Kirby said there is still an US Army investigation going
on right now, which has not been completed yet.
Violent anti-US protests over the Quran burning had
killed 40 people in Afghanistan, taking relations between NATO
and its Afghan allies to an all-time low and forcing US
President Barack Obama to apologise.
PTI
