Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan get together activists run from police throughout a protest in assist of Palestinians, in Muridke, Pakistan, on Oct. 13.
Arif Ali/AFP through Getty Photos
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Arif Ali/AFP through Getty Photos
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan banned a hard-line Islamist get together on Thursday, greater than per week after heated clashes with police that left no less than 5 individuals useless.
The ban follows a march by the get together, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), earlier this month from the japanese metropolis of Lahore to the capital metropolis, Islamabad. It escalated right into a vicious avenue battle between TLP supporters and police in Lahore and the close by metropolis of Murdike, resulting in a crackdown on the get together, which has come to be identified for these violent confrontations.
A assertion from the workplace of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif mentioned the ban was unanimously accepted by the federal cupboard, citing “violent and terrorist actions.” The ban is the most recent chapter in an advanced relationship between the Pakistani state and the TLP, which has amassed appreciable grassroots assist lately for its hard-line views, notably on blasphemy or the denigration of Islam.
In response to Pakistan’s blasphemy legal guidelines, individuals who insult Islam or Islamic figures can face a doable demise sentence. The TLP calls for demise as a punishment, and human rights teams say the get together’s supporters generally perform brutal mob lynchings even earlier than individuals accused of blasphemy go on trial. Pakistan has seen a vital spike in blasphemy circumstances lately, consistent with the TLP’s rise.
The TLP was formally launched as a political get together in 2017 by a fiery cleric, although its ideology took maintain earlier, following the 2011 assassination of the governor of Pakistan’s populous Punjab province, Salman Taseer, who was outspoken towards the blasphemy legal guidelines. The homicide led to a wave of assist for the governor’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri, one in all Taseer’s bodyguards, who was hailed by some as a hero and defender of Islam. The TLP is just not thought of a mainstream political get together, however it has a big ideological assist base, particularly in Punjab province.
The transfer to ban the get together got here from the federal government in Punjab, the place the current protests came about. Earlier than the ban, police in Punjab raided the home of the TLP’s chief, Saad Rizvi, and the federal government sealed mosques and seminaries related to the get together. Among the get together’s associates at the moment are additionally going through anti-terrorism expenses, based on Punjab’s data minister, Azma Bokhari.
“This isn’t a spiritual or political get together — they disguise behind faith to unfold dysfunction and attempt to do politics over useless our bodies,” Bokhari mentioned in an interview with native media.
The TLP introduced the protest as a present of solidarity with Palestinians following the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and protesters have been set to assemble in entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. Forward of the protest, the federal government suspended cellular web service within the capital and cordoned off main roads with transport containers to maintain protesters out.
Khurram Iqbal, an affiliate professor of safety research at Quaid-e-Azam College in Islamabad, says each exterior and inside components created the atmosphere for this crackdown to happen, together with Pakistan’s current realignment with america.
“We are able to ailing afford any strain group charging on the American Embassy,” he says.
Azaz Syed, a senior Pakistani journalist, says the TLP acknowledged this dynamic as a possibility.
“They thought that they’d elevate the priority that Pakistan is supporting America, and America is bringing peace after a compromise with Israel,” Syed says. “They needed to additional put it to use for gaining extra assist.”
However Pakistan’s civilian authorities and army management additionally took this as an affront, he says, contributing to the crackdown. “It meant that they’re truly difficult them.”
The TLP was beforehand banned in 2021 after the get together held violent protests in response to caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad printed in France. The get together known as for the expulsion of the French ambassador, and hundreds of individuals gathered within the streets to strain the federal government to behave on their demand. The ban was later eliminated with the situation that the TLP should chorus from violence.
Pakistan’s leaders have defended the present ban towards the TLP as needed to keep up public order. In an interview with native media, Pakistani Protection Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif known as for a “laborious state” method towards the get together.
“Such non secular extremist teams, which resort to violence and trigger injury to property, can’t be tolerated in Pakistan,” he mentioned.
Pakistan has additionally taken a hard-line method towards different political events, most lately the get together of imprisoned former prime minister, Imran Khan, beginning in 2023. Some leaders from Khan’s get together held protests final week towards the crackdown on TLP, calling it unconstitutional.
