After Pak protest: Dutch lawmaker cancels caricature contest

THE HAGUE/ISLAMABAD: After the protests in Pakistan, Dutch anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders says he has cancelled a planned Prophet Muhammad (SAW) sketch contest following death threats and concerns other people could be put at risk, foreign media reported.

In a written statement issued on Thursday night, Wilders said he had decided not to let the cartoon contest go ahead to avoid the risk of violence. Wilders, who has for years lived under round-the-clock protection because of death threats sparked by his fierce anti-Islam rhetoric, said he does not want others endangered by the contest he planned for November. The contest was to have been held at the tightly-guarded offices of his Party for Freedom in the Dutch parliament building.

Earlier, a Dutch judge extended by two weeks the detention of a 26-year-old man who allegedly threatened to attack Wilders. Prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday that an investigating judge ordered the suspect held while he is investigated on charges of making a terrorist threat, making preparations for a terrorist murder and incitement.

The man, reportedly a Pakistani citizen, was arrested on Tuesday in The Hague on suspicion of terror offences after he allegedly posted the threat, in Urdu, on Facebook a day earlier. Prosecutors say he was not armed.

Meanwhile, the announcement regarding the cancellation of the contest comes shortly after Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a statement, saying the act was hurting the sentiments of Muslims living all around the world.

PM Khan urged all Muslim countries to use the platform of the United Nations to convey to the Western world how Muslims feel when their religious sentiments are repeatedly hurt by disrespecting the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry termed it a victory of the Pakistani nation, saying it was made possible by diplomatic efforts on the directives of PM Khan.

Soon after the announcement, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi held a media talk, accompanied by TLP leaders and requested them to call off their protest and disperse peacefully following the cancellation of the blasphemous contest.

The foreign minister congratulated the nation and the Muslim Ummah on their moral victory and termed the cancellation of the contest a victory for Pakistan on the diplomatic front. Earlier, Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which started a march on Islamabad to protest a far-right Dutch lawmaker's plans to hold blasphemous caricature contest, had called it off.

Some 10,000 supporters of the Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) set out on the march Wednesday, calling on Prime Minister Imran Khan to cut ties with the Netherlands, reported local media.

The party's spokesman, Eijaz Ashrafi, says police halted the march on Thursday in Jhelum. He says the protesters refuse to disperse, and that police will have to ‘kill us’ to stop the march.