Twitter account suspended

Twitter suspended the account of an ultra-right Pakistani cleric on Sunday following inflammatory statements targeting the judiciary, prime minister, and military after the acquittal of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, the government said.

Cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party blocked off roads in Pakistan’s biggest city for three days last week and threatened the Supreme Court judges who acquitted Asia Bibi on Wednesday — urging their cooks and servants to kill them.

Bibi had spent eight years on death row before the court overturned her conviction and ordered her to be freed. “We sent a request to Twitter that this account has been inciting hate and violence,” two senior officials at the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The TLP condemned the suspension of Rizvi’s account, terming it a “conspiracy by the opponents of the protection of prophethood and Islam”.

A second account that was created on Sunday was also suspended soon after.

The TLP ended protests late Friday evening following negotiations with the government and an agreement to open a review of the court’s decision as well as possibly putting Bibi’s name on an ‘exit control list’ that would bar her from leaving the country.