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PAKISTAN HAS BECOME THE CAULDRON OF PROTESTS

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 4/17/2021 11:05:31 AM

T K NANDANAN It is most unfortunate that Pakistan has become a seething cauldron of extremists’ protests with the intention to oust French nationals from the country over blasphemous caricatures published last year. As a result of this, all the French nationals in Pakistan have been advised to temporarily leave the country fearing backlash from the fundamentalists over the blasphemous caricatures by the French magazine. Meanwhile, Pakistan has banned a radical Islamist party under the Terrorism Act after its supporters clashed with the law enforcement agencies for the third consecutive day leaving seven persons dead and over 300 policemen injured. Now it is good that Pakistan has at last convinced of the danger of terrorism and it is a wise decision that Tehreek-i- Labaik Pakistan (TLP) has been banned under the Terrorism Act of 1997. It is to be noted that there are several other terrorist organisations having their base in Pakistan, and Pakistan is notoriously known for that in the entire world. So, this notoriety-tag must be torn off by banning all other terrorist organisations presently operating in the Pakistani soil. It is to be remembered that the radical party, the Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) has issued an ultimatum to expel the French ambassador by April 20. Therefore, the French embassy in Islamabad advised its nationals and companies to leave Pakistan ahead of the deadline. Think of the economic repercussions Pakistan is going to receive due to French nationals and companies leaving Pakistan en masse. It must be remembered at this time that China also aired TV show with drawing of the Prophet Muhammad and Muslim world is reticent about it. Last year, Prime Minister Modi reiterated India’s full support to France in the fight against terrorism, extremism and radicalism. It may be noted that India is a major strategic partner of France and has close defence ties with it. A number of incidents in the recent past in which the terrorists killed several innocent people had a devastating effect on the nation and its people. In the month of October 2020, a French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded outside a school in a suburb of Paris and in September 2020 two people were stabbed and seriously hurt in Paris near the former offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine, where Islamist militants carried out a deadly attack in 2015 and lists of macabre killing go on. In another incident, three people died in a knife attack at a church in Nice. French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the killing and said that it was an Islamist terror attack. In this context, it may be recalled that certain Muslim organisations and countries have called for banning French products after President Emmanuel Macron defended the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet. France is a Christiandominated country and the French President has the right to defend his countrymen and banning the French products is not an ideal thing at all and also singling out and expelling French nationals is not a good thing at all.