Some 1,000 people have demonstrated in Kyrgyzstan's capital against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, saying cartoons like those published by French weekly Charlie Hebdo "insult the feelings of religious believers."
The January 20 rally in Bishkek's Gorky Park was officially called "I am not Charlie, I love my Prophet."
Demonstrators included Kyrgyz lawmakers and opposition politicians, as well as representatives of the Central Asian state's Daghestani, Chechen, Kazakh, and Tajik minorities.
They held posters saying, "I love my Prophet Muhammad, peace be with him."
The rally came a day after hundreds of thousands attended a state-sponsored demonstration in the capital of Russia's Chechnya region at which political and religoius leaders condemned caricatures of Muhammad and lambasted the West.
Also on January 19, hundreds in Georgia's ethnic-Chechen-populated Pankisi Gorge protested against caricatures of Muhammad.
Islamist militants killed 12 people in an attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7.
