Officers held hostage in mosque by protesters freed

ELEVEN Pakistani police officers seized by supporters of a radical Islamist group campaigning to get the French ambassador expelled have been released, officials said yesterday.

The officers were grabbed and taken as hostages during the latest violent clashes between police and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protesters in Lahore.

A video circulating on social media, confirmed by a police source, showed some of them bloodied and bruised, with bandages around their heads.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the hostages had been released after talks with the TLP, which the government banned last week after effectively labelling it a terrorist organisation. “Negotiations have been started with TLP; the first round completed successfully,” said Rashid.

Lahore police said one of the hostages was a ranger from the country’s paramilitary force.

The officers had been held at a TLP mosque stronghold in Lahore, which is now packed with supporters and surrounded by police.

The group has waged an antiFrance campaign for months since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of Charlie Hebdo magazine to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

Rioting has rocked the country for the past week since the leader of the TLP was detained in Lahore after calling for a march on the capital to evict the French ambassador.

TLP leaders say several of the party’s supporters have also been killed and many wounded in clashes.

Yesterday, shops and markets in Lahore and Karachi were closed and some transport services halted.

“The government has resorted to shedding blood of innocent people. The (protesters) are raising their voice rightfully and we support that,” said Sharjeel Goplani, head of a business association in Karachi, who supports the expulsion of the French envoy.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has struggled to bring the TLP to heel over the years, but this week announced an outright ban against the group. Yesterday, he called for an end to the violence.

Last week the French embassy in Pakistan advised its nationals to leave the country temporarily.