LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) – Pakistan on Friday blocked short access to all social media, after days of anti-French protests across the country by radical Islamists opposed to cartoons that they consider blasphemous.
Websites, including Twitter and Facebook, have been blocked for four hours at the behest of the country’s Interior Ministry, said Khurram Mehran, a spokesman for the Pakistan Media Agency. He gave no further details.
The move comes as police officers prepare to clean up a major protest in the eastern city of Lahore, and hours after the government said the now-detained leader of the banned Islamic political party at the forefront of the protests called on its supporters has to give up. .
By releasing a letter they said was written by Saad Rizvi, the government hopes to calm tensions after its party in Tehreek-e-Labiak in Pakistan sparked the violent protests – in which two police officers were killed and 580 injured. France requested its citizens to leave the country as a result.
Three protesters were also killed in clashes with security agencies, and the government banned the party.
A photo of the statement was released earlier on Twitter by an adviser to the prime minister, but neither Rizvi himself nor any of his party leadership were immediately available for comment. Some of his followers insisted on hearing or seeing the words of Rizvi himself before stopping, and the Lahore protest continued after Friday prayers.
The French embassy in Pakistan on Thursday advised all its citizens and companies to leave the Islamic country temporarily after violence erupted over the arrest of Rizvi.
Violent protests have been going on since Monday in Lahore, damaging private and public property and disrupting the much-needed supply of oxygen to hospitals. Some of those affected included COVID-19 patients who had oxygen support.
In the statement, Rizvi asked its supporters to peacefully disperse for the good of the country and end their main sit-up that began on Monday, when police arrested the radical cleric for threatening protests if the government did not French ambassador before April 20 would not expel.
Rizvi’s arrest sparked violent protests by his followers, who disrupted traffic by sit-ins across the country. Although security forces have cleared almost all of the rallies, thousands of Rizvi followers are still gathering in Lahore and promising to die to protect the honor of Islam’s prophet Mohammed.
Rizvi becomes the leader of the banned Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan party in November after the sudden death of his father, Khadim Hussein Rizvi. His party also wants the government to boycott French products.
Rizvi’s party has denounced French President Emmanuel Macron since October last year, saying he had tried to defend blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed as freedom of expression. Macron spoke after a young Muslim beheaded a French schoolteacher who displayed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in class.
The images were republished by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to open the process for the deadly attack in 2015 on the publication for the original caricatures.
This has angered many Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere who believe these depictions were blasphemous. Rizvi’s group has become known over the past few years for opposing the changes against the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, including anyone accused of insulting Islam or being sentenced to death by other religious people if convicted.