Police detain TLP workers, leaders ahead of Nov 15 protest

Police in Punjab has arrested at least 96 leaders and activists of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) ahead of the religious party's November 15 protest.

Around 36 workers, including Amir Inayat-ul-Haq Shah of the parties northern Punjab chapter were arrested in Rawalpindi, while 60 others were arrested from Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum.

Those detained were kept in various police stations across the province as police conducted further raids to arrest party activists. Police in Lahore also raided the residence of TLP chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi, but he could not be apprehended.

Despite the crackdown, TLP workers vowed to reach the protest venue, Liaquat Bagh, on November 15.

TLP has announced a march from Peshawar to Faizabad to protest against the blasphemous caricatures and France's disrespect of the religion.

In a fiery speech last weekend, the TLP chief stated that France has committed global terrorism by publishing blasphemous sketches.

Addressing a rally with thousands of participants in Karachi on Nov 7, Rizvi lambasted Muslim countries and organisations representing the international Muslim community for their silence, terming it 'reprehensible' as well as a criminal offence.

Prominent religious scholar Mufti Muneebur Rehman, who also addressed the march, also lamented that Muslim countries had remained silent on the matter.

Claiming that there would be no peace as long as the West continued to hurt the feelings of Muslims, he demanded that the Pakistani government ban French products on the national level.

The republication of blasphemous sketches in France, along with French President Emmanuel Macron's statements on the matter, has met much outcry in Pakistan in recent days, with several protests held across the country.