Hostage cops let go as talks start
DEMAND: PAKISTANI GROUP WANTS AMBASSADOR GONE Supercharged protests after Charlie Hebdo republishes Prophet cartoons.
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 taken hostage during the latest violent clashes between police and Tehreek-eLabbaik 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 yesterday “11 policemen who were made 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 in a video on Twitter.
Lahore police confirmed the release of the hostages, adding one was a ranger from the country’s paramilitary force.
The officers had been held at a TLP mosque in Lahore, which is now packed with supporters and surrounded by police.
The group has waged an anti-France 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.
The protests have paralysed cities and led to the deaths of six policemen.
TLP leaders say several of the party’s supporters have also been killed and many wounded.
Calls for a nationwide strike in solidarity with the TLP has been widely supported by mainstream religious groups. Yesterday, shops and markets in Lahore and Karachi were closed and some transport services halted.
Few issues are as galvanising in Pakistan as blasphemy and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests, incite lynchings, and unite the country’s warring political parties.
“The government has resorted to shedding blood of innocent people. The [protesters] are raising their voice rightfully and we support that,” said Sharjeel Goplani, the head of a business association in Karachi, who supports the expulsion of the ambassador.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government has struggled to bring TLP to heel over the years.
The previous week, the French embassy in Pakistan advised its nationals to leave the country – a call that appears to have gone largely unheeded. –