Lahore (HRNW) The chief of the Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan Saad Rizvi has been released from jail after being held for about seven months as the administration attempted to prevent violence from breaking out.
Saad Rizvi and the TLP had started agitating against the fresh publication of sacrilegious cartoons in a French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, last year. They were particularly incensed when French President Emmanuel Macron defended the cartoons.
In February this year, the party told the government that it wanted the French ambassador expelled from Pakistan. They said that Pakistanis should boycott French products. Signs started going up on supermarket shelves where French cosmetics were sold across Pakistan. The government mollified them by entering a deal which it promised to present to parliament by April. The agreement is said to have been on relations with France.
When this did not happen by April, however, Saad Rizvi renewed his calls for protests. He was then detained under the Maintenance of Public Order rules on charges of inciting violence. TLP activists reacted badly to his arrest and nationwide demonstrations broke out. Protesters torched vehicles and damaged property. The government took action by banning the party and arresting scores of workers.
For a second time, then, the government managed to persuade the TLP to call off its protest. Saad Rizvi remained behind bars.
By October, however, TLP activists started a long march on Islamabad from Lahore, immediately after 12th Rabiul Awwal. They clashed with police in Lahore and stopped at Muridke on October 23 only when Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed held talks with them.
By November the TLP ban was rescinded by the government.
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