Pakistan initiates legal action against religious group

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

The government on Saturday decided to charge key leaders of a religious group with treason for violent protests against the acquittal of a Christian woman.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told reporters in capital Islamabad that several leaders of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), including its firebrand chief Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi, would be tried under treason and terrorism charges for inciting violence and challenging the writ of state during protests against acquittal of Aasia Bibi by the country’s top court last month.

Rizvi together with over 3,000 other TLP activists were picked up during a nationwide crackdown against the group.

Violent protests against Bibi's acquittal by the Supreme Court in a blasphemy case shut down key cities across the country for four days.

The protesters called for killing Bibi who has since then been kept at an unknown location.