Eleven Pakistani police officers taken hostage by anti-France protesters were released after negotiations, the interior ministry announced on Monday (April 19th). A video uploaded on Sunday, and authenticated by the police, shows injured police officers, some bleeding and bruised, bandaged around their heads. They were captured Sunday by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party during violent protests in Lahore.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the police were released early Monday after “Negotiations” with the TLP, officially banned since last week by the government which classified it as a terrorist organization.
The officers were held in a mosque belonging to the TLP, in which supporters of this movement gathered. She is currently surrounded by police. “Negotiations have started with the TLP, the first part has been successfully completed”Mr Rashid said in a video on Twitter. “They freed the eleven policemen who had been taken hostage”. He said a second round of negotiations will take place later Monday, although it is not clear what they will focus on.
Call to leave the country
Islamists have been protesting since April 12 against the imprisonment of their leader, who was arrested for asking for the expulsion of the French ambassador. They had set April 20 as the deadline for the expulsion of the French ambassador.
Anti-France protests took place in several cities across the country, leading to the deaths of six police officers and leading the French embassy to call on its nationals to temporarily leave the country.
The party has been at the origin of an anti-France campaign for months since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right to cartoon in the name of freedom of expression. The head of state spoke during the tribute to Samuel Paty, the teacher killed on October 16 after showing satirical drawings to his class, in the wake of the republication of representations of the Prophet Muhammad by the weekly Charlie Hebdo.