France advises residents to depart Pakistan amid critical threats

France has suggested French residents to quickly depart Pakistan and warned of significant threats to French pursuits within the nation, two diplomatic sources mentioned on Thursday, after violent clashes there this week.
Thousands of Pakistani Islamists had clashed with police earlier this week in protest in opposition to the arrest of their chief forward of rallies denouncing French cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
For Muslims, depictions of the Prophet are blasphemous. The diplomatic sources mentioned {that a} message had been despatched in a single day to French residents and corporations following threats by hardline Islamist group Tehrik-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) to focus on French pursuits.
The sources mentioned the embassy despatched a message to French residents in Pakistan recommending that French nationals depart the nation and French corporations shut down actions quickly “due to the serious threats to French interests in Pakistan”.
Relations between Paris and Islamabad have worsened because the finish of final yr after President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to a French historical past trainer who was beheaded by an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin for exhibiting cartoons of the Prophet in a category on freedom of speech.
The photographs sparked anger and protests within the Muslim world, particularly in Pakistan, and even noticed a Pakistani minister pressured to withdraw feedback she made that Macron was treating Muslims like Nazis had handled Jews in World War Two.
Last yr, TLP ended an identical protest in opposition to France solely after the federal government signed a deal agreeing to endorse a boycott of French merchandise and making a transfer in parliament to expel French ambassador. It had this week demanded the envoy be expelled.
Pakistan has mentioned it could outlaw the group and the arrest of its chief this week sparked additional protests in opposition to France.
“It’s a serious situation and we know that in Pakistan things can escalate quickly,” mentioned one of many diplomaticsources.
Pakistan’s embassy in Paris didn’t instantly reply for remark.