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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s federal cabinet unanimously approved a summary declaring religiopolitical party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) a proscribed organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Thursday, following violent clashes between the party’s supporters and law enforcement personnel earlier this month. 

The Punjab government announced last Friday it had formally approved a recommendation to ban the TLP and sent it to the government for final enforcement. Punjab’s move came a few days after a pre-dawn operation by law enforcement authorities in Muridke, a town near Lahore, where the TLP had set up a protest camp en route to Islamabad. The crackdown led to violent clashes and dozens of arrests, effectively halting the group’s planned march. 

The party said its march toward Islamabad was for peaceful purposes and was intended to culminate in a sit-in outside the US Embassy in Islamabad to demonstrate solidarity with Gaza.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday chaired a meeting of the federal cabinet in which the interior ministry submitted the summary to ban the TLP on behalf of the Punjab government, the PMO said. The cabinet was briefed on the “violent and terrorist” activities of the TLP across the country, it added. 

“The federal cabinet has unanimously approved declaring the TLP (Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan) as a proscribed organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act,” the PMO said. 

Senior Punjab government officials took part in the cabinet meeting via video link, the statement said. Members of the cabinet were told that since the party was formed in 2016, it had incited unrest throughout the country via violent protests. 

This is not the first time the government has decided to ban the TLP. The federal government outlawed the group in April 2021 under the same Anti-Terrorism Act, following a wave of violent anti-France protests that left several police officers dead.

However, the ban was lifted just months later in November 2021, after Islamabad negotiated a deal with the party to end its march toward the capital.

The PMO noted that the TLP’s violent protest rallies and gatherings in the past have resulted in the deaths of security personnel and innocent citizens. Punjab Police said earlier this month that clashes with TLP protesters injured nearly 100 police personnel.

“After the briefing and recommendations from the Punjab government, the federal cabinet unanimously concluded that the TLP is involved in terrorism and violent activities,” it concluded. 

TLP’S RISE

The TLP, led by its chief Saad Hussain Rizvi, is known for its street mobilization and confrontational politics. The party has repeatedly staged mass sit-ins and marches to Islamabad since its rise in 2017. Previous protests have often turned violent, resulting in extended clashes with police and days-long disruption of traffic on key highways leading to the capital.

TLP has its ideological roots in Barelvi Islam, a mainstream sect traditionally seen as moderate but for which blasphemy is a red line. It was formed in 2015 by Rizvi’s wheelchair-bound father, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, known for his fiery speeches and harsh criticism of political opponents. 

The party started making waves in 2016 when it protested the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard who assassinated the governor of Punjab over his stance on blasphemy.

The TLP bagged 2.2 million votes in the 2018 national elections, mostly from the easter Punjab province, and won two provincial seats in southern Sindh. It also emerged as the third-largest party in Punjab, behind former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and ex-premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

According to Gallup Pakistan, over 2.89 million people voted for the far-right party in the 2024 national elections, 0.76 million more compared to the 2018 polls.

PESHAWAR: Gunmen fired on a vehicle in Pakistan’s northwestern border region, killing a pro-government militia leader and five others before torching their bodies, an official told AFP on Thursday.

The attack took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, where violence has surged since the Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

The gunmen fired on the victims, poured fuel onto their vehicle and set it ablaze, a senior administration official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“The assailants set the vehicle on fire to spread fear, completely charring the bodies of the six victims,” the official said.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the official said the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — the Pakistani Taliban — had been demanding extortion money from the militia leader, which he refused to pay, and was killed in reprisal.

Pakistan has accused the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan of sheltering TTP militants and allowing them to launch cross-border attacks from there — a charge Kabul denies.

The border between the two countries was closed after clashes this month, sparked by an explosion in Kabul on October 9, killed dozens of civilians and troops on both sides.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government blamed the blast on Pakistan and launched a retaliatory offensive along the border.

A ceasefire brokered over the weekend remained in effect on Thursday, with Pakistani and Afghan officials due to meet in Turkiye on Saturday.