Pak frees hardline Islamist under deal to end unrest

LAHORE, November 18

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Pakistan on Thursday freed a hardline Islamist leader a week after removing his name from terrorism watch list, under a deal to end weeks of deadly protests by his followers over an alleged anti-blasphemy campaign, a government officials and his lawyer said.

Saad Hussain Rizvi, the chief of a Sunni militant group — Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan — was released from a jail in Lahore city, a government spokesman said. The release came two weeks after the government of PM Imran Khan agreed to free over 2,000 detained members of the TLP movement, lifted a ban on the group and agreed to let it contest elections. In return, the TLP would shun the politics of violence and withdraw a demand to have France’s ambassador expelled over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad by a French magazine, negotiators have said. — Reuters