Pakistan Re-Bans Violent Islamist Party TLP After Deadly Clashes

Pakistan's government has announced the second ban in four years on the far-right Islamist party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), under the country's Anti-Terrorism Law.

The decision by the cabinet follows recent violent clashes during an anti-Israel rally, which resulted in the deaths of five people including one police officer and four civilians.

The TLP, founded in 2015, is a radical Sunni Muslim group known for its focus on attacking actions it considers blasphemous and has repeatedly caused major disruption through large, often violent street protests.

The party was first outlawed in 2021 by the Imran Khan government after a wave of violent anti-France protests. That ban was conditionally lifted just six months later by the succeeding government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, with the requirement that the party cease using violence.

The current ban, approved by the cabinet, cites the recent renewed violence as a violation of those conditions.