France has advised French citizens to leave Pakistan temporarily and warned of serious threats to the French interests in the country, two diplomatic sources said on Thursday after violent clashes there this week.
Thousands of Pakistani Islamists clashed with police earlier this week in protest of the arrest of their leader ahead of marches denouncing French cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
To Muslims, the portrayal of the Prophet is blasphemous.
The diplomatic sources said that a message was sent overnight to French citizens and companies following threats by the hardline Islamic group Tehrik-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) to target French interests.
The sources said that the embassy had sent a message to French residents in Pakistan recommending that French citizens should leave the country and that French businesses should temporarily suspend the activities “due to the serious threats to the French interests in Pakistan”.
Relations between Paris and Islamabad have deteriorated since late last year after President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to a French history teacher who was beheaded by an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin because he was in a class on freedom of speech.
The images sparked outrage and protests in the Muslim world, especially in Pakistan, and even saw a Pakistani minister forced to withdraw comments she made that Macron treated Muslims like Nazi Jews treated in World War II.
Last year, TLP ended a similar protest against France only after the government signed an agreement to agree to endorse a boycott of French products and move to parliament to oust the French ambassador. It demanded this week that the envoy be suspended.
Pakistan has said it bans the group and its leader’s arrest this week has sparked further protests against France.
“This is a serious situation and we know that things in Pakistan can escalate rapidly,” said one diplomatic source.
The Pakistani embassy in Paris did not immediately respond.
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