Pakistani capital partially closed as banned religious party marches on Islamabad

Pakistani capital partially closed as banned religious party marches on Islamabad

ISLAMABD: Authorities blocked several thoroughfares in the Pakistani capital on Friday after the banned religious party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan began a march on the Pakistani capital to force the government to release its top leader and expel the French envoy to Islamabad. TLP has been protesting about the incarceration of it chief, Saad Rizvi, and demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in France last year. After Rizvi’s arrest in April, violent demonstrations by TLP supporters erupted in major Pakistani cities. Six policemen were killed and more than 800 people were injured, according to official figures, in protests that lasted a week. Protesters are marching from Lahore, Punjab province, where the TLP leadership is based. Authorities have partially shut down the country’s capital and other major cities by blocking major roads and arteries with shipping containers after the TLP leadership on Thursday threatened to march on Islamabad and stage a sit-in until their demands were met. “Our march has started now from Lahore to Islamabad,” Saddam Bukhari, a TLP spokesperson, told Arab News on Friday afternoon. “Thousands of people are accompanying us, and we will reach Islamabad to register our protest.” Islamabad and adjacent