ISLAMABAD: Supporters of Pakistan’s far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party began their long march to the capital on Wednesday, amid demands to shut down the Dutch embassy in Islamabad.

The mark of protest follows an announcement in June by Dutch far-right leader, Geert Wilders, to hold an anti-Islam cartoon contest, in the Netherlands, later this year.

Hundreds of supporters and followers of firebrand cleric and TLP chief, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, gathered outside the famous shrine of Hazrat Usman bin Ali Hajjveri, a sufi saint, before commencing their journey to the capital. 

“Federal government sent Noor ul Haq Qadri [Minister for Religious Affairs] and Raja Bashart [the Punjab Law Minister] for a dialogue and they asked our leadership to call off the protest but our talks failed to reach a consensus,” Usman Jalili, a TLP central leader and media coordinator told Arab News.

“Our one point agenda is that the government immediately expels the Dutch ambassador from Islamabad and recalls its envoy from the Netherlands,” Jalili said, adding that the party would continue to protest in Islamabad “till the time the government meets our demands”. 

TLP issued an elaborate plan for the protest, with Rizvi expected to address supporters at different stopovers. “Hopefully we will spend the night at Gujrat and reach Islamabad on Thursday,” Jalili said.

The TLP party had secured 2.2m votes in the elections held on July 25, after contesting on a single-point agenda of reverence and respect for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It emerged as the fifth largest party in the election in terms of the number of votes obtained across the country.

“They (protestors) have to understand that the government took a number of steps -- our Foreign Minister talked to his Dutch counterpart and the Foreign Office also lodged a protest with the Netherlands’ charge d’affaires in Islamabad,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told Arab News.

Analysts were not quick to take the bait.

“The decision of the TLP to march to Islamabad presents a very difficult situation for the PTI government which assumed power about a week ago. I think it is going to allow the TLP to organize more protests, make speeches, and leave. It will not allow it to occupy any intersection or block highways,” Professor Rasul Bakhsh Rais, a political analyst, told Arab News.

He added: “If the government cows down to such pressures, it is likely to face many such protests from various religious organizations in the future.”

In November last year, Rizvi’s followers blockaded a main crossing between Islamabad and Rawalpindi for three weeks to protest a minor change in an oath for parliamentarians. The TLP party termed the change as a modification in the constitutional clause about the finality of the prophethood. Former government law minister Zahid Hamid was forced to resign from his post, leading to the TLP finally calling off the protest.