Pakistan negotiated with radical Islamists on Monday after freeing 11 police kidnappings during a week-long anti-blasphemy protest against France in which four officials were killed, Interior Minister said.
Most of the main businesses, markets, shopping malls and public transport services were closed in large cities in response to a strike call by the Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) and its affiliated groups.
The PSX 100 exchange in Pakistan opened 500 points lower that morning, but recovered later in the day.
The police officers were abducted during clashes outside the TLP headquarters in the eastern city of Lahore, which according to the group also killed its three members.
Photos of the police officers, with their heads, legs and arms heavily connected, were posted on social media by their inmates.
“They have released the 11 policemen who were being held hostage,” Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said in a video statement.
He said negotiations with the TLP are underway.
“There have been two rounds of talks and there will be another one later in the evening,” Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, Minister of Religious Affairs, told parliament. “We believe in negotiations and reconciliation to resolve issues.”
The government banned the TLP last week after blocking highways, railways and access routes to major cities, assaulting police and burning public property. Four police officers were killed and more than 500 wounded.
The violence erupted after the government, Saad Hussain Rizvi, detained the TLP leader ahead of a planned nationwide anti-France campaign to put pressure on the Islamabad government to oust the French ambassador in response to the publication of cartoons last year in France representing the Prophet Mohammad.
The TLP has made four main demands in talks with the government, officials from both sides said.
These include the expulsion of the French ambassador, the release of the TLP leader and some 1,400 arrested workers, the lifting of the ban on the group and the dismissal of the interior minister.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said the ouster of French Ambassador Pakistan would only do damage, and diplomatic engagement between the Muslim world and the West was the only way to resolve disputes.
“If we send back the French ambassador and sever ties with them, it means we are severing ties with the European Union,” he said in a televised speech. “Half of our textile exports go to the EU, so half of our textile exports will be gone.”
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 descent for drawing cartoons of the Prophet in a class on freedom of speech. address.
Protests have erupted in several Muslim countries over France’s response to the assassination of the teacher. The sign of the Prophet was also reprinted elsewhere.
At the time, Khan’s government had signed an agreement promising to submit a resolution to parliament by April 20 seeking approval for the expulsion of the French envoy and to endorse a boycott of French products.
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