ISLAMABAD: Leaders of Islamist political factions in Pakistan on Friday rallied against a French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, for republishing sacrilegious images of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and demanded immediate expulsion of the French ambassador from the country.
The protest demonstrations were organized in various cities by groups like Tehreek-e-Labbaik, Sunni Tehreek and Majlis-e-Wahdat-ul-Muslimeen.
The participants of the rally said they would not tolerate “blasphemous acts” against their religion, adding that the publication of controversial sketches was yet another manifestation of Islamophobia in the guise of free speech and expression.
Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly publication, was attacked by Islamist gunmen in 2015 after it published anti-Islam images that offended a large number of Muslims and led to widespread protests.
The publication printed the same material again as a court began to try some people who allegedly facilitated the attack.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday denounced the magazine’s decision to republish the sketches, pointing out in a video message that such caricatures hurt the sentiments of Muslims across the world.
Meanwhile, the magazine’s management announced on Friday that its latest edition had sold out in just one day, and a new batch of 200,000 copies would hit newstands on Saturday.
Protesters in Pakistan demand expulsion of French ambassador as Charlie Hebdo sells out latest edition
https://arab.news/ce6pk
Protesters in Pakistan demand expulsion of French ambassador as Charlie Hebdo sells out latest edition
- The French satirical magazine republished anti-Islam images that resulted in an attack on its office in 2015
- Pakistan has already denounced Charlie Hebdo’s decision to republish material that hurt ‘the sentiments of millions of Muslims’
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
