Thousands rally in Lahore over blasphemy law

[Dance]

LAHORE: About 40,000 people rallied in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Sunday in the latest protest against proposed reforms of a controversial blasphemy law, police said.

Religious groups have held protests in several Pakistani cities since former Punjab governor Salman Taseer vowed to amend the law, that was recently used to sentence a Christian woman to death

Taseer’s stance enraged the country’s increasingly conservative religious base and he was assassinated on January 4 by his own security guard, who has said he killed the governor over his support for reform.

Under intense pressure from religious parties, Pakistan’s government has since said it had no intentions to amend the law.

Demonstrators from religious parties Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan and Jamaat-ud-Dawa held banners in support of Mumtaz Qadri – the police commando who shot dead Taseer.

Participants chanted slogans including “Free Mumtaz Qadri”, “We are ready to sacrifice our lives for the honour of Prophet Mohammad” and “Changes in blasphemy law not accepted.”

An AFP reporter saw activists carrying effigies of Pope Benedict XVI and Pakistani minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti shouting slogans “Allah-o-Akbar.”

Local government official Tariq Zaman put the overall number of protesters at 40,000.

Leaders of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and Quaid-i-Azam group also addressed the rally.

Event organisers called the brothers of two Pakistani men shot dead by a US national in Lahore on Thursday to the stage and pledged their support for the victims’ families in pursuing a murder case.

The US man, named as Raymond Davis, is being held at a police station on double murder charges over the shooting of the two motorcyclists.

The US embassy had claimed diplomatic immunity on his behalf while Davis, who has been held at a Lahore police station since the incident, told a magistrate’s court Friday that he had fired in self-defence.

Thousands rally in Lahore over blasphemy law | DAWN.COM | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia

 

[Dance]

I'm getting so sick of these mullahs and their hypocrisy/BS

 

[pak-marine]

i remember just recently in their karachi mullah parties managed to gather similar amount of people ... wats going on here ??

 

[Karachiite]

We need to send these jamati Mullahs back to where they came from. Same people that called Quaid e Azam Kafir e Azam and Pakistan Kafiristan are spreading venom here.

I wish a suicide bomber would blow himself in these pathetic protests for blasphemy law.

 

[Dance]

i remember just recently in their karachi mullah parties managed to gather similar amount of people ... wats going on here ??

It's the same people Jamat-e-ABCDEF causing drama all over Pakistan. What should be done is to arrest them for inciting hatred and violence, but we all know thats not going to happen unfortunately.

 

[pak-marine]

It's the same people Jamat-e-ABCDEF causing drama all over Pakistan. What should be done is to arrest them for inciting hatred and violence, but we all know thats not going to happen unfortunately.

all these as you put it jamat e abc---z lol ... are foreign funded they dont have any public mandate , the amount of money they get in charity is a lot and 40000 people is no issue ..... they are hiding behind Islams curtain ... they are in the business of religion. How it works is an un-qualified mulah sitting in a mosque can issue are decree against any one he likes or told to , and their it starts .... most of these jamat e (none) were against pakistan to start with and if any one is following most of these religious parties members were caught quiet often , sheltering or providing help to terrorists. Its happening right in front of every one ... but the wise guys have decided to stick to ostrich mode as this like every thing is too hot to handle!!

 

[FreekiN]

About 40,000 people rallied in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Sunday in the latest protest against proposed reforms of a controversial blasphemy law, police said.

40,000 people

40,000

This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[Ahmad]

It's hopeless man, nobody bother to rally in condemnation of suicide bombers and terrorists, but huge rallies of 10s of thousands gather in every city every time in support of this law. Perhaps the anti blasphemy law guys leave this issue as it is because it is the common people who want this law to be in place, if they, the majority want it ,then there is no point of attempts to change it, let people go deep in religious fanaticism, suffer, suffer and suffer, eventually they themselves will say enough is enough, but this will probably take time, maybe generations.

 

[Dance]

all these as you put it jamat e abc---z lol ... are foreign funded they dont have any public mandate , the amount of money they get in charity is a lot and 40000 people is no issue ..... they are hiding behind Islams curtain ... they are in the business of religion. How it works is an un-qualified mulah sitting in a mosque can issue are decree against any one he likes or told to , and their it starts .... most of these jamat e (none) were against pakistan to start with and if any one is following most of these religious parties members were caught quiet often , sheltering or providing help to terrorists. Its happening right in front of every one ... but the wise guys have decided to stick to ostrich mode as this like every thing is too hot to handle!!

I agree! I just wish our government was more tough on these people, so that they dont go around shaming Pakistan around the world. These people should move back to their homeland india or Saudi Arabia.

 

[Karachiite]

The majority do not want to keep this law. The majority are confused. The don't want to have this law but they think that by dumping this law they are going to upset god or commit a big sin. This is what you get when mullahs brainwash you because majority of Pakistanis do not understand arabic and they look towards Mullahs to guide them but these hypocrite mullis are destroying them.

 

[Dance]

It's hopeless man, nobody bother to rally in condemnation of suicide bombers and terrorists, but huge rallies of 10s of thousands gather in every city every time in support of this law. Perhaps the anti blasphemy law guys leave this issue as it is because it is the common people who want this law to be in place, if they, the majority want it ,then there is no point of attempts to change it, let people go deep in religious fanaticism, suffer, suffer and suffer, eventually they themselves will say enough is enough, but this will probably take time, maybe generations.

40,000 people is a lot, but you have to remember that Pakistan has a population of 180 million people. We don't really know for sure if majority of Pakistanis support this law because like you said, people that do not support the law do not go out and rally and the ones that do support it are more vocal which sometimes makes it seem like they are the majority.

 

[Ahmad]

I agree! I just wish our government was more tough on these people, so that they dont go around shaming Pakistan around the world. These people should move back to their homeland india or Saudi Arabia.

honestly what can the gov do, lets be fair. the gov doesnt want more bombings and militancy, even the individual politicians are scared as hell, Qadri have sent a super strong message to all politicians.

 

[Ahmad]

40,000 people is a lot, but you have to remember that Pakistan has a population of 180 million people. We don't really know for sure if majority of Pakistanis support this law because like you said, people that do not support the law do not go out and rally and the ones that do support it are more vocal which sometimes makes it seem like they are the majority.

We saw in egypt that thousands and thousands of people came to protest, the egyptian population is around 80m. when there is a demonstration, not the whole population come out and take part, if there is a strong gathering for any purpose, then there is surely a support for that cause, god knows how many milions are there in their homes and work places that cant come to protest but support the law.

 

[Dance]

honestly what can the gov do, lets be fair. the gov doesnt want more bombings and militancy, even the individual politicians are scared as hell, Qadri have sent a super strong message to all politicians.

If they become strict with them, then these people would not go around doing this. Hang or execute mullahs who support terrorism/taliban publicly, which will then send a message. The reason the are becoming more vocal is because the government is not doing anything.

 

[Dance]

We saw in egypt that thousands and thousands of people came to protest, the egyptian population is around 80m. when there is a demonstration, not the whole population come out and take part, if there is a strong gathering for any purpose, then there is surely a support for that cause, god knows how many milions are there in their homes and work places that cant come to protest but support the law.

The Egypt situation is vastly different from this. Again there are people who dont support the law but they do not protest, which then makes the mullahs seem like the majority. Also the article has said that the these protests in Lahore, Karachi, etc are by the SAME people.