An outlawed Pakistani Islamist political group freed 11 policemen almost one day after taking them hostage in the eastern city of Lahore amid violent clashes with security forces, Pakistani Minister of the Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said yesterday.
Supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan party attacked a police station near their rallying point and on Sunday took the policemen hostage.
The group is protesting the arrest of their leader, Saad Rizvi, and pressuring the government of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to immediately expel French Ambassador to Pakistan Marc Barety over the publication of controversial cartoons.
Police initially reported that the protesting Islamists held five policemen hostage, but in a video message, Ahmad said that Rizvi’s supporters had taken 11 policemen hostage.
They were freed after a successful first round of talks with the government, which released a photograph that it said showed the officers had been tortured.
The tension stems from last year’s remarks by Barety when he tried to defend the publication of caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed by the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, drawing condemnation from throughout the Muslim world.
Since Monday last week, the demonstrators have blocked roads and highways at 192 places, but security forces cleared their 191 sit-ins over the past few days, Ahmad said.
He hoped that the last troubling point in Lahore, where Rizvi’s supporters were still rallying, would be cleared as talks between Rizvi’s representatives and the province of Punjab proceeded.
Ahmad’s comments came hours after police and paramilitary troops swung batons, fired tear gas and used guns to crack down on demonstrators, killing three Islamists and injuring dozens of others.
Authorities said that it was a response to the attack by Rizvi’s supporters on the police station and the capture of the 11 policemen, including Deputy Police Superintendent Umar Farooq Baluch.
Upon the hostages’ release, the government made public a group photograph of the former captives with bandages on their heads, hands or arms.
The police said that the kidnapped officers were tortured.
Angered over the deployment of security forces against Rizvi’s supporters, the country’s religious political parties announced a nationwide strike, asking transporters to stay away from roads and urging businesspeople to keep markets closed yesterday.
The appeal only drew a partial response, although businesses were closed in Lahore and Karachi.
Tensions have been high in Pakistan since last week when Rizvi’s supporters paralyzed normal life in various parts of the country by blocking highways.
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