No leniency: Pakistani NSA warns of action against TLP …

Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a radical Islamist party, take part in a protest march toward Islamabad, on a highway in the town of Sadhuke, in eastern Pakistan on Wednesday. (Photo: AP/PTI)

Pakistans National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf on Thursday, October 28, said the banned Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had crossed the red line and exhausted the states patience.

Thousands of members of the TLP are protesting on the streets of Pakistan with various demands, including the release of their imprisoned leader Saad Rizvi, a ban on French goods, and the expulsion of the French Ambassador to Pakistan. This is TLP's third nationwide protest since 2017 over caricatures that are considered blasphemous by Muslims published in a French magazine.

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They have martyred policemen, destroyed public property, and continue to cause massive public disruption. Law will take its course for each one of them and terrorists will be treated like terrorists with no leniency, Moeed Yusuf tweeted.

For all individuals and groups who think they can challenge the writ of the Pakistani state, do not test the proposition. As the basic principle of national security, the state will never shy away from protecting each and every citizen from any form of violence, he tweeted, adding There will be NO armed militias of any sort in our country.

TLPs founder late Khadim Rizvi's son Saad Rizvi was detained by the Punjab government in April last under the maintenance of 'public order' (MPO) following the partys protest against the blasphemous caricatures.

The death toll in the protests has risen to 18 now with 11 TLP workers and 7 policemen dying since the clashes broke out between the banned outfit and police over a week ago. A couple of days ago, the government had freed 350 TLP activists to placate the radical group.

The clashes between the armed TLP activists and police started at Sadhoke, some 50 km from Lahore, when thousands of the TLP protesters who had been camping between Muridke and Gujranwala along the GT Road for the last three days started the march towards Islamabad after getting a go-ahead from their leadership.

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No leniency: Pakistani NSA warns of action against TLP ...