France has advised French citizens to leave Pakistan temporarily and has warned of serious threats to French interests in the country, two diplomatic sources said on Thursday after violent clashes there this week.
Thousands of Pakistani Islamists had clashed with police earlier this week in protest against their leader’s arrest ahead of rallies denouncing French cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed.
To Muslims, images of the prophet are blasphemous.
Diplomatic sources said a message had been sent overnight to French citizens and businesses following threats from the Tehrik-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) Islamic group to attack French interests.
The sources said the embassy had sent a message to French residents in Pakistan recommending that French nationals leave the country and that French companies temporarily cease operations “due to serious threats to French interests in Pakistan.”
Relations between Paris and Islamabad have deteriorated since late last year after President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to a French history teacher who was beheaded by an 18-year-old man of Chechen descent for showing cartoons of the Prophet in a class on freedom of speech .
The footage sparked anger and protests in the Muslim world, especially in Pakistan, and even saw a Pakistani minister forced to retract his comments that Macron treated Muslims the way Nazis treated Jews in World War II.
Last year, TLP ended a similar protest against France only after the government signed an agreement to approve a boycott of French products and make a move in parliament to oust the French ambassador. It had demanded this week that the envoy be deported.
Pakistan has said it would ban the group, and the arrest of its leader this week sparked further protests against France.
“It is a serious situation and we know that things can escalate quickly in Pakistan,” said one of the diplomatic sources.
The Pakistani Embassy in Paris did not immediately respond for comment.
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