ISLAMABAD – Pakistani security agencies have thwarted an attempted attack on the French embassy in Islamabad over alleged blasphemy, according to a media report.
An unnamed suspect was taken into custody on Thursday after he resorted to aerial firing in a bid to pass through a security checkpoint in the diplomatic enclave of the federal capital, the UCAnews said in its report.
The suspect told police that he wanted to take revenge for blasphemous cartoons published in France. The relationship between Pakistan and France remains strained over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad deemed blasphemous by many in the deeply conservative Islamic nation.
Last year, protests broke out in several Muslim countries over France’s response to a deadly attack on a teacher who showed blasphemous cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) to pupils during a class. Pakistan and other Muslim-majority countries had accused France’s government of being Islamophobic and needlessly provoking believers.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had also said that French President Emmanuel Macron “attacked Islam” by encouraging the display of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
“Sadly, President Macron has chosen to deliberately provoke Muslims, incl his own citizens, through encouraging the display of blasphemous cartoons targeting Islam & our Prophet PBUH,” the PM had said on Twitter.
