Blasphemous caricatures: Law enforcers, protesters clash at French consulate

The demonstration turned violent as the crowd started marching towards the consulate

KARACHI:

A dozen people, including a photo journalist and law enforcement personnel, were wounded as demonstrators affiliated with the Islami Jamiat-e-Talba (IJT), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, clashed with the law enforcers guarding the French consulate in Karachi on Friday.

Following the call for nationwide sit-ins to protest the blasphemous caricatures depicting the Holy Prophet (PBUH), a demonstration was organised by the IJT at the Teen Talwar roundabout in Clifton, after Friday prayers. Holding placards in their hands, the protesters shouted slogans against the publication of the cartoons and the publisher, the French satirical weekly magazine, Charlie Hebdo.

The demonstration, which was largely calm as the protesters gathered at the Teen Talwar, suddenly turned violent when the crowd started moving towards the French consulate, located at Bath Island in Clifton.

The police used tear gas shells, water cannons and also baton-charged the protesters in an effort to disperse them. The charged protesters, however, hit back at the law enforcers, pelting them with stones as they tried to march towards the consulate. The area quickly turned into a virtual battlefield as the law enforcers and protesters repeatedly engaged in skirmishes. The law enforcers also resorted to aerial firing after some men in plain clothes, whose identities have yet to be determined, opened fire.

The skirmishes lasted for at least an hour and a half, during which time a photojournalist associated with the Agence France-Presse (AFP), Asif Hassan, sustained a bullet wound, while at least four police personnel, including Frere DSP Iftikhar Lodhi, a cameraman of a private TV channel, Adeel  and half a dozen protesters, were wounded. None of the others were, however, injured by gunfire.

Police claim to have detained over one dozen protesters and shifted them to different police stations in the district. The protesters refuted the allegations that they had started the violence. "We just wanted to stage a protest by sitting outside the consulate. The police also assured us of cooperation but then they started using muscle against us," said Asad Khan, one of the protesters. "We had no weapons. We just used stones for self-defense."

On the other hand, police officials blamed the protesters for creating a law and order situation. "We had no intention to use muscle. The police only used force against the protesters after they initiated the violence," District South police chief DIG Abdul Khalique Shaikh told The Express Tribune. "We even allowed some of the protesters to go to the gate of the consulate to submit a memorandum. Out of nowhere, some of the protesters got agitated started pelting stones at the police. Some of them also opened fire at the police."

In response to a question, DIG Shaikh said that usually, personnel in plainclothes are deployed for intelligence purposes. He said that Asif Hassan was standing next to the police personnel when he was injured by the protesters' gunfire.

The DIG said that a case will be registered against the perpetrators for attacking the police personnel, while those detainees who are not found guilty in the investigations would be released. After the clashes, the police negotiated with the protesters, who later left the site and staged a sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club.

Condemning the 'high-handedness and arbitrary' action of the police, Hafiz Bilal Ramzan, the head of IJT Karachi chapter, said that violence would not have occurred if the police had allowed the protesters to stage a peaceful protest outside the French consulate.

"The police indiscriminately fired live bullets, tear gas shells and deployed water cannons against the protesters. They forcefully barred the protesters from exercising their democratic right to protest," asserted Ramzan. "Our only aim was to present a memorandum to the French consul-general, expressing our strong reservations over the publication of blasphemous sketches in the name of free speech."

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2015.