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PThe Pakistani police arrested a radical Islamist cleric who led national rallies after the acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy in a case condemned by the international community.
In a statement, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik party announced that its leader, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, was arrested Friday in Lahore. The police also arrested many supporters, he added.
The arrests took place several weeks after Rizvi's supporters staged violent rallies against Bibi's acquittal by the Supreme Court on 31 October.
Since 2010, she was on death row for insulting the Prophet Muhammad, Islam.
This provoked the anger of Mr. Rizvi and his supporters who gathered for three days.
Mr. Rizvi ended the protest after the authorities stated that Ms. Bibi would not leave Pakistan until a petition against her acquittal had been considered.
This week, a British religious organization criticized the government's inability to propose to Ms. Bibi and her family asylum in the UK, which officials attributed to the concern that attacks be perpetrated against the staff of the Embassy in Pakistan.
The British wing of Aid to the Church in Need said militiamen were pursuing their families pending the release of Ms. Bibi.
The cleric's son stated that his father had been taken away during a night raid at his religious school, or madrassa, in Lahore, in the east of the country.
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