Pakistan has blocked access to all social media after days of violent anti-France protests by radical Islamists over blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Facebook and Twitter and other sites have been temporarily blocked on orders from the country s interior ministry said Khurram Mehran, a spokesman for Pakistan s media regulatory agency.
A reason for the block has not been provided and comes as police officials prepare to clear a large demonstration in the eastern city of Lahore.
It also follows just hours after the government said the leader of the outlawed Islamist political party, Saad Rizvi, at the forefront of the protests, had urged his supporters to stand down.
Pakistan briefly blocks social media amid anti-France rally
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BABAR DOGAR, Associated Press
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1of3Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan, a radical Islamist political party, chant slogans during a protest against the arrest of their party leader, Saad Rizvi, in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, April 15, 2021. The French embassy in Pakistan on Thursday advised all of its nationals and companies to temporarily leave the country, days after violent anti-France violence erupted in this Islamic nation over the arrest of Rizvi who wants expulsion of French envoy over the publication in France of depictions of Islam s Prophet.K.M. Chaudary/APShow MoreShow Less
French Embassy advises its citizens to leave Pakistan
Sun Online Desk
16th April, 2021 08:52:26
The French Embassy on Thursday asked its citizens as well as companies to leave Pakistan temporarily over violent anti-France protests that crippled large parts of the country this week. Due to the serious threats to French interests in Pakistan, French nationals and French companies are advised to temporarily leave the country, the embassy said in an email to French citizens, as quoted in media reports.
The departures are scheduled to be carried out by existing commercial airlines in the Islamic country.
At least four people were killed and thousands injured, including members of security forces, as violent protests, led by a radical Islamist group, Tehreek-e Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), continued for the second day on Tuesday across major cities in Pakistan, forcing the government to deploy paramilitary forces.