Status: 05.11.2021 3:58 a.m.
Time and again, supporters of the radical Islamic movement TLP paralyze major Pakistani cities with blockade actions. The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan is an additional incentive for the Islamists – and the government has no strategy.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imre Khan is apparently under so much pressure that he is ready to make remarkable concessions to Islamists. Khan apparently wants to lift the ban on the right-wing extremist Islamist party Tehreek-i-Labbaik (TLP). Previously, at least 15 people, including several police officers, had been killed in days of violent protest marches by the TLP.
Pakistan’s government has recognized that the TLP is no longer a terrorist group or a banned organization, Bashir Farooqi told a local news channel. He was part of the TLP negotiating team. The government has also agreed to release the imprisoned TLP leader Saad Rizvi and another 2,300 activists. The names would be removed from the terror list. 1000 TLP activists have already been released, confirmed a minister of the Punjab province. Prime Minister Kahn, on the other hand, has forbidden his government cabinet to speak publicly about the deal, reports the Pakistani newspaper “Dawn”.
Tehreek-e-Labbaik was only founded in 2015. The radical Islamists took advantage of the protests after the publication of the Mohammed cartoons by the French satirical magazine Charly Hebdo. The party fights for the maintenance and strict application of Pakistan’s blasphemy law. The abolition is requested by the European Parliament, among others. It has been in its current form since 1986 and provides for the death penalty or life imprisonment for blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed. The TLP also advocates the introduction of Sharia law as a legal principle. During its demonstrations and marches, the TLP mobilizes thousands of supporters and thereby paralyzes large cities again and again. It has the strongest support in the Punjab.
Since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, political observers in Pakistan have seen the radical Islamist movements in Pakistan gain strength. Christian Wagner from the Science and Politics Foundation in Berlin says: “The Islamist groups have received a boost from the Taliban’s victory. They now see an opportunity to enforce their demands in other countries as well. The Pakistani Taliban are currently trying to do this through more attacks in Pakistan . You want to establish a Taliban state in Pakistan. The TLP has its own goals. ”
Pakistan does not know how to deal with the Islamist groups, said Wagner. “In the past there have been repeated reports that the secret service and the army have supported these groups.” The prominent preacher Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghani from Islamabad already sees the victory of the Islamists. “Taking power in Afghanistan was just the beginning.” Soon the Islamic system will be introduced across Pakistan, perhaps across the world, Ghani said. Wagner thinks this is an overestimation of himself. But Pakistan has promoted and supported radical Islamists such as the Taliban and other groups. The fact that Khan has now negotiated with the TLP, which is banned as a terrorist organization, shows the weakness of his government.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted about the negotiations with the TLP: “Religious extremist groups have the ability to use the mob for violence, but their ability to make politics has always been limited.”
There are parliamentary elections in Pakistan in 2023. In 2018, Tehreek-i-Labbaik suddenly became the fifth strongest political force, but failed to make it into parliament. That could change in 2023.