<p>Anti-France demonstrators rallied Thursday in Pakistan and the foreign minister lodged a diplomatic complaint as the backlash grew against a French magazine republishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.</p>.<p>Satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, the target of a massacre by Islamist gunmen in 2015, reprinted the controversial caricatures this week to mark the start of the trial of the alleged accomplices in the attack.</p>.<p>Dozens of men gathered in the northern city of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, yelling slogans that included "Stop barking, French dogs" and "Charlie Hebdo, stop".</p>.<p>"The government of Pakistan should immediately end its diplomatic relations with France as a protest," Sunni cleric Mohammad Zaman said at the rally.</p>.<p>The protest ended peacefully after the men stomped on a French flag, dowsed it in petrol and then set it ablaze.</p>.<p>In a video message, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he strongly condemned Charlie Hebdo's action and that he had lodged a protest with the French ambassador in Islamabad.</p>.<p>"The published caricatures have hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims," he said.</p>.<p>"I hope that this despicable act will not be repeated and those responsible for it will be taken to a court of law."</p>.<p>Far-right Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan said it was organising a protest after Friday prayers in the eastern city of Lahore. Other protests were expected in the cities of Rawalpindi and Karachi.</p>.<p>TLP has organised huge protests over alleged blasphemy in the past. It paralysed much of Pakistan in 2018 with violent protests against the acquittal of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy.</p>.<p>Images of the Prophet are proscribed in Islam. Insulting religion under Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws can carry the death penalty.</p>.<p>Twelve people, including some of France's most celebrated cartoonists, were killed on January 7, 2015, when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi went on a gun rampage at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.</p>
<p>Anti-France demonstrators rallied Thursday in Pakistan and the foreign minister lodged a diplomatic complaint as the backlash grew against a French magazine republishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.</p>.<p>Satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, the target of a massacre by Islamist gunmen in 2015, reprinted the controversial caricatures this week to mark the start of the trial of the alleged accomplices in the attack.</p>.<p>Dozens of men gathered in the northern city of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, yelling slogans that included "Stop barking, French dogs" and "Charlie Hebdo, stop".</p>.<p>"The government of Pakistan should immediately end its diplomatic relations with France as a protest," Sunni cleric Mohammad Zaman said at the rally.</p>.<p>The protest ended peacefully after the men stomped on a French flag, dowsed it in petrol and then set it ablaze.</p>.<p>In a video message, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he strongly condemned Charlie Hebdo's action and that he had lodged a protest with the French ambassador in Islamabad.</p>.<p>"The published caricatures have hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims," he said.</p>.<p>"I hope that this despicable act will not be repeated and those responsible for it will be taken to a court of law."</p>.<p>Far-right Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan said it was organising a protest after Friday prayers in the eastern city of Lahore. Other protests were expected in the cities of Rawalpindi and Karachi.</p>.<p>TLP has organised huge protests over alleged blasphemy in the past. It paralysed much of Pakistan in 2018 with violent protests against the acquittal of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy.</p>.<p>Images of the Prophet are proscribed in Islam. Insulting religion under Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws can carry the death penalty.</p>.<p>Twelve people, including some of France's most celebrated cartoonists, were killed on January 7, 2015, when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi went on a gun rampage at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris.</p>