[ad_1]
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: To avoid a standoff with banned Islamist outfit Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), the Imran Khan government has released 350 activists of the group.
The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan had threatened to hold a “long march” to Islamabad.
“We have released 350 TLP workers up to now and we are still waiting to open both sides of the road of Muridke as per the decision with the TLP,” interior minister Sheikh Rashid tweeted after leading a government team in negotiations with representatives of the TLP.
The government also assured it is working on a plan to release jailed TLP chief Saad Rizvi, Pakistan minister Rashid said.
Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn described the government’s decision to release TLP activists as “another total surrender before the violent protesters”.
TLP’s founder late Khadim Rizvi’s son Saad Hussain Rizvi has been detained by the Punjab government since April last under the maintenance of ‘public order’ (MPO) following the party’s protest against the blasphemous caricatures of Islam’s Prophet published in France and its demand that the French ambassador be sent back and import of goods from that country be banned.
The TLP has waged an anti-France campaign since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed — an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.
Six police officers were killed in April when the TLP staged days of rallies that shut roads and paralysed Lahore.
Few issues are as galvanising in Pakistan as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests, incite lynchings, and unite most of the country’s warring political parties.
(With inputs from agencies)
The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan had threatened to hold a “long march” to Islamabad.
“We have released 350 TLP workers up to now and we are still waiting to open both sides of the road of Muridke as per the decision with the TLP,” interior minister Sheikh Rashid tweeted after leading a government team in negotiations with representatives of the TLP.
The government also assured it is working on a plan to release jailed TLP chief Saad Rizvi, Pakistan minister Rashid said.
Pakistan’s leading daily Dawn described the government’s decision to release TLP activists as “another total surrender before the violent protesters”.
TLP’s founder late Khadim Rizvi’s son Saad Hussain Rizvi has been detained by the Punjab government since April last under the maintenance of ‘public order’ (MPO) following the party’s protest against the blasphemous caricatures of Islam’s Prophet published in France and its demand that the French ambassador be sent back and import of goods from that country be banned.
The TLP has waged an anti-France campaign since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed — an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.
Six police officers were killed in April when the TLP staged days of rallies that shut roads and paralysed Lahore.
Few issues are as galvanising in Pakistan as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests, incite lynchings, and unite most of the country’s warring political parties.
(With inputs from agencies)
[ad_2]
Source link
