Pak Islamist group to protest Dutch event

ISLAMABAD: The hardline Islamic group that laid siege to Islamabad last year demanding strict adherence to blasphemy laws has warned it will again march on the Pakistani capital to protest against a competition of blasphemous cartoons to be held in the Netherlands.

The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) said on Sunday it will launch a “decisive march” from Lahore to Islamabad on August 29 and “stay on the streets until either the publication of blasphemous cartoons in the Netherlands end or the government immediately ends diplomatic ties with the Dutch”.

The group led by radical cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi announced the protest after Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders said he would hold a competition of blasphemous caricatures in November.

The TLP urged the Imran Khan government to end diplomatic and commercial ties with the Netherlands and to demand that other Islamic countries do the same. It further demanded that “strict measures” be taken against the US as the competition’s judge is an American.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said the absence of an international policy on blasphemous content reflected the “collective failure” of Muslim nations.

“Our government will raise the matter in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and ask Muslim countries to come up with a collective policy that can then be brought up at international forums,” he said. HTC