{"id":23008,"date":"2018-11-23T23:23:37","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T23:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23008"},"modified":"2018-11-23T23:23:37","modified_gmt":"2018-11-23T23:23:37","slug":"pakistan-arrests-tlp-leader-behind-blasphemy-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23008","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan arrests TLP leader behind blasphemy protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Pakistani authorities have arrested the leader of a religious party which had disrupted daily life with nationwide rallies following the acquittal of a Christian woman<\/a> in a blasphemy case.<\/p>\n

The son of Khadim Hussain Rizvi, leader of the right-wing Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party, said his father was taken away on Friday in a nighttime raid on his religious school in the eastern city of Lahore.<\/p>\n

“Police raided our school and arrested our revered leader,” Saad Rizvi told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n

The TLP said in a statement that Rizvi was arrested along with scores of supporters, according to a report by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

In a tweet<\/a>, Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Rizvi “has been taken into protective custody and shifted to a guest house”.<\/p>\n

“The action was prompted by TLP’s refusal to withdraw its call for protest on November 25. It\u2019s to safeguard public life, property and order,” the minister said.<\/p>\n

Rizvi has called his party members to observe “martyrs’ day” on Sunday by holding a rally in capital, Islamabad, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper said.<\/p>\n

Chaudhry, however, said the arrest “has nothing to do with the Aasia Bibi case”.<\/p>\n

\n

Khadim Hussain Rizvi has been taken into protective custody by police and shifted to a guest house.They insisted to come to Rwp refusing Governments proposal for alternative arrangements
It\u2019s to safeguard public life, property and order and has to do nothing with Asia Bibi case<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) 23 November 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right-wing protests over blasphemy<\/h2>\n

Rizvi’s TLP was at the forefront of a nationwide protest<\/a> against the acquittal of Pakistani Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, in a blasphemy case by the country’s Supreme Court last month.<\/p>\n

The TLP had demanded Bibi’s public execution, while the party’s founder, Mohammad Afzal Qadri, called for the death of the three Supreme Court judges who ruled to acquit her.<\/p>\n

Qadri had also called for the overthrow of the Pakistan<\/a> government over the controversy.<\/p>\n

The protests ended only after the government agreed to a Supreme Court review<\/a> of Bibi’s acquittal.<\/p>\n

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan went on the national television to say that the Supreme Court’s decision will be final and upheld.<\/p>\n

The chances of the apex court’s acquittal being overturned are slim, according to Bibi’s lawyer, who fled<\/a> Pakistan following the verdict.<\/p>\n

Blasphemy is a massively inflammatory issue in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even unproven allegations of insulting Islam and Prophet Mohammed can lead to lynchings and murders.<\/p>\n

The allegations have led to at least 74 killings in Pakistan since 1990, according to an Al Jazeera tally.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, hardline groups continue to hold sporadic, albeit peaceful, rallies across the country and calling for Bibi’s execution.<\/p>\n

The TLP has also vowed to return to the streets if Bibi leaves the country.<\/p>\n

The Pakistani government has repeatedly stated that Bibi is being held in a secure location in Pakistan after being released from a prison<\/a> in central Multan earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The exact whereabouts of the 54-year-old woman are unknown. Her family has requested asylum<\/a>, which has been offered by several countries including\u00a0Canada, Spain and France.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pakistani authorities have arrested the leader of a religious party which had disrupted daily life with nationwide rallies following the acquittal of a Christian woman in a blasphemy case. The son of Khadim Hussain Rizvi, leader of the right-wing Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP) party, said his father was taken away on Friday in a nighttime raid on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}