Islamists give two-day deadline to Pakistan govt to release party chief and expel French envoy

A radical Islamist party, whose tens of thousands of supporters are camping on the way to Islamabad, on Sunday gave a two-day deadline to the Pakistan government to release their party chief and expel the French ambassador or face sit-in the national capital.

After talks with the banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said on Sunday that the protesting Islamists will not march on Islamabad as detained TLP workers will be released.

"Under an agreement signed with the TLP earlier, the issue of expelling the French ambassador will be taken to parliament for debate,” said the minister, who held talks with both a TLP delegation and jailed TLP chief Saad Hussain Rizvi at Kot Lakhpat Jail here.

"About 10,000 Islamists are camping from Muridke to Gujranwala (on G T Road), some 80 kms from Lahore. They are waiting a signal from their leadership to march on the capital,” a Punjab government official told PTI.

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"At present, the protesters are told to stay there for a couple of more days as the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government has promised to release their leader (Rizvi) and take steps with regard to French envoy's expulsion over blasphemous cartoons by Tuesday,” the official said.

In a statement issued to the media, TLP said: "The government has sought time from us till Tuesday to implement the agreement with us (to expel French envoy) and release of our leaders and workers including the party chief Saad Rizvi. Besides, the government will quash all illegal FIRs against our workers and leaders. Our protest march will only end after acceptance of our demands."

On Saturday, the TLP supporters had managed to bulldoze all security layers of police after fierce clashes and entered Gujranwala limits. Three policemen and seven TLP workers have died in the clashes so far that erupted on Wednesday. However, no clashes took place on Sunday as the talks were held between the government and TLP delegation.

"A total seven TLP activists have been killed by direct firing of police and over 700 suffered injuries in Lahore so far,” TLP official Ibn-i-Ismail said. He said the condition of many injured workers is critical.

On Saturday, Shahdara and adjoining areas (outskirts of Lahore) turned into battlefields. Police fired teargas shells to disperse the protesters who in return pelted the law enforcers with stones. Many TLP workers carrying clubs appeared to be fighting back when the riot police tried to disperse them. The Rangers remained behind the police force and did not take part directly in dispersing the protesters.

Police in Gujranwala have dug up a 12-foot-deep ditch and filled it with water to prevent Islamists from heading towards Islamabad. Heavy contingent of police deployed around the protesters. The Islamabad police have also written to the Punjab inspector general of police seeking 10,000 trained policemen for deployment in the federal capital.

Police have placed containers on main arteries at twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

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.

Subsequently, the TLP agreed to call off protests across the country on the Pakistan government's assurance that it would present a resolution on the expulsion of the French ambassador in the National Assembly.

However, the government had called the NA session to debate the French envoy's expulsion and before a vote could take place on the resolution, the speaker announced the formation of a special committee to discuss the matter and asked the government and the opposition to engage with each other to develop consensus on the issue. No meeting of this special committee has been held since April.

The TLP shot to fame in 2017 when it held a massive protest for three weeks in the busy Faizabad interchange near Islamabad. The party lifted the lockdown of the city after the then government sacked the law minister.