Pakistan: Shehbaz Sharif government bans TLP under anti-terror laws after deadly clashes

Pakistan bans hardline TLP again

Pakistan has once again banned the far-right Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) under anti-terrorism laws, following deadly clashes during anti-Israel protests near Lahore that left at least five people dead.

The decision, announced after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, marks the second time authorities have outlawed the group, which has led some of the country’s most violent demonstrations in recent years.

“The Federal Cabinet unanimously concluded that TLP is involved in terrorism and violent activities,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. It added that the party’s “violent protests, rallies, and demonstrations” have resulted “in the deaths of security personnel and innocent bystanders.”

The latest unrest began on 9 October, when TLP supporters, led by party chief Saad Rizvi, marched from Lahore towards Islamabad to protest a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Four days later, violent clashes in Muridke, a town between Lahore and Islamabad, left at least five people, including a police officer, dead.

Authorities have since launched a sweeping crackdown, freezing 95 bank accounts and several properties allegedly linked to the group. Rizvi has reportedly gone underground to avoid arrest, Punjab government spokeswoman Azma Bokhari said.

The TLP was previously banned in April 2021 after violent anti-France protests that killed several police officers and civilians, though the ban was lifted seven months later. The party contested both the 2018 and 2024 general elections, winning one provincial seat in Punjab earlier this year despite failing to secure representation in the national parliament.

The group has in recent years mobilised thousands of zealous supporters to paralyse cities, demand the expulsion of Western diplomats, target religious minorities, and incite riots.

Also known as the Movement at the Service of the Prophet, TLP rose to prominence in 2016 after protests against the execution of Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard who assassinated Punjab governor Salman Taseer in 2011 for seeking reforms to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. Many Pakistanis hailed Qadri as a hero—a sentiment that gave TLP founder Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Saad Rizvi’s father, the momentum to build the party into a mass movement, analysts previously told AFP.

TLP draws its ideological roots from Barelvi Islam, a mainstream sect often regarded as moderate, though fiercely protective of blasphemy-related issues.

(With inputs from agencies)