Pakistan to ban extremist party after clashes

AN EXTREMIST political party which has brought parts of Pakistan’s major cities to a standstill in three days of violent protests will now be banned, a senior minister has said.

Followers of the Tehreek-e-labbaik Pakistan (TLP) have clashed with police and blocked major roads in a campaign demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador in the Prophet Mohammed cartoons row.

Two policemen have been killed and another 340 have been injured during the unrest.

“We have decided to ban the TLP and the draft is going to the cabinet for approval,” Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Pakistan’s interior minister, told a press conference.

He said the party’s demands risked making Pakistan look like a “radical nation” to the outside world.

The group has fanned anti-french sentiment after the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine republished the same cartoons that prompted a deadly attack on its Paris office in 2015. The TLP has amassed huge grassroots support with its rallying cry to protect the honour of the prophet against blasphemy.

Imran Khan’s government had attempted to appease the TLP by agreeing to seek a parliamentary resolution to expel the French envoy.

Yet as the April 20 deadline approached, Saad Rizvi, the TLP’S far-right Muslim leader, was arrested on unspecified charges in the city of Lahore earlier this week, touching off the riots.