Pakistani police fired tear gas Sunday to try to disperse thousands of supporters of an Islamist hanged last month for killing the governor of Punjab, the most populous province of the country.
The execution of Mumtaz Qadri, a police officer who was shot in 2011 Governor Salman Taseer, was seen as a turning point in the fight against religious extremism in this Muslim country of 200 million inhabitants.
But this hanging was also rankled many Islamic currents that had gathered about 100,000 people in the streets of Rawalpindi, the twin city of the capital Islamabad, for the funeral of Mumtaz Qadri, who had accused the governor of desecrating Islam by advocating reforming the controversial blasphemy law.
Sunday, nearly a month after hanging around 25,000 supporters of Mumtaz Qadri met in Rawalpindi for memorial prayers, before advancing to the grid capital of hundreds of police and paramilitaries.
Equipped with shields and batons, police fired tear gas at protesters equipped with stones to prevent them from entering Islamabad, according to journalist on the spot.
This forceful protest was ignored by the local press and was not broadcast on the rolling news channels, the media are subject to censorship by increasing the state that does not want this type of protest take extent in the rest of the country.
Other Pakistanis accused of blasphemy Junadi Jamsheed, a pioneer of Pakistani pop of the 80s turned into a preacher. A video showing men assaulting the anger circulated Sunday on social networks.
The star has been beaten up in the output of the Islamabad airport which is actually located in Rawalpindi. "You have committed blasphemy. Hit him, hit him," shouts one of the men in this video filmed by a mobile phones.
"We waited for you. He lacked respect for the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. He has blasphemed against him," said another.
Mr. Jamshed, who was forced to return to the airport was later posted on Facebook a comment in which he said it was "time for us in time that nation not to let these religious fanatics prevail".
A video in which Junaid Jamshed made negative remarks about the youngest wife of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.a.w.)to highlight the alleged failures of the women had circulated widely in 2014, and a complaint had been filed in court against him for blasphemy.
But the fiftieth apologized and the case was closed.
In Pakistan, the blasphemy law provides up to the death penalty for persons convicted of derogatory remark to the place of the Prophet Muhammad. Extremists and crowds have lynched people suspected of insults to Islam without waiting for the verdict of justice.
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