France has advised French citizens to leave Pakistan temporarily and warned of serious threats to French interests in the country, two diplomatic sources said on Thursday, following violent clashes there this week.
Thousands of Pakistani Islamists clashed with police earlier this week in protest of the arrest of their leader, ahead of rallies denouncing French cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
For Muslims, the prophet’s descriptions are blasphemous.
Diplomatic sources said a message was sent overnight to French citizens and companies following threats from the powerful Islamist group Tehrik-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) to target French interests.
Sources said the embassy sent a message to French residents in Pakistan, advising French nationals to leave the country and French companies to temporarily close operations “due to serious threats to French interests in Pakistan”.
Relations between Paris and Islamabad have deteriorated since the end of last year, after President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to a French history teacher who was beheaded by an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin for showing cartoons of the Prophet in -a free speech class.
The images sparked anger and protests in the Muslim world, especially in Pakistan, and even saw a Pakistani minister forced to withdraw comments that Macron treated Muslims the way the Nazis treated Jews in the second. World War.
Last year, the TLP ended a similar protest against France only after the government signed an agreement accepting a boycott of French products and making a move in parliament to expel the French ambassador. This week he had asked the envoy to be expelled.
Pakistan has said it will outlaw the group, and the arrest of its leader this week sparked new protests against France.
“It is a serious situation and we know that in Pakistan things can intensify quickly,” said one diplomatic source.
The Pakistani embassy in Paris did not immediately respond to comments.
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