Pakistan Lifts Ban on Radical Group to Help End Deadly Protests

(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan lifted a ban on the radical religious group Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan, known as the TLP, as part of an agreement to end deadly protests by the group last month. 

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s cabinet allowed the TLP to participate in mainstream politics in the “larger national interest” and on the commitment the party won’t hold violent protests in the future, according to an interior ministry statement on Sunday. The government will also release its top leader Saad Rizvi, who was jailed in April after similar protests, Dawn newspaper reported.

The supporters of the TLP had blocked one of the country’s main highways leading to capital, Islamabad, to demand the release 
of their leader and reportedly seeking the expulsion of the French ambassador over the controversial remarks of President Emmanuel Macron on publication of cartoons ridiculing Islam’s Prophet Mohammed. The group has held multiple deadly protests in past.

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