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Probe into Quran burning in Afghanistan over

March 14, 2012 08:23 IST

The United States 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 on Wednesday.

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 North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and its Afghan allies to an all-time low and forcing US President Barack Obama to apologise.

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