After 10 deaths during clashes, Pakistan opts for negotiations with hardline Islamists

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<img height="1" src="file:///C:/Users/media/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" width="1" />Ten people including policemen have died in clashes between the police and the fundamentalist Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) as the banned organisation seeks the release of its jailed leader Saad Hussain Rizvi and expulsion of the French ambassador.</p>
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<a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1653756/tlp-workers-will-not-proceed-towards-islamabad-says-rashid-as-negotiations-make-progress">Pakistani newspaper <em>Dawn </em>reported </a>that Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said on Sunday that the TLP has agreed to not carry out its march towards Islamabad as negotiations with the group had "almost" succeeded. Ahmed, who was in Dubai to watch the India Pakistan match T20 had to return home to monitor the challenging security situation.<br />
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Ahmed said that the TLP protestors have also agreed to not hold their proposed sit-in in Islamabad. They will instead carry on with their protest in Lahore. The Pakistan federal government sent a three-member delegation of ministers to talk with the TLP members.<br />
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The minister also informed that detained TLP workers will be released. The government will also place before the parliament the demand over the expulsion of the French ambassador.<br />
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TLP workers had begun their march from Lahore to Pakistani capital Islamabad and stage a sit-in demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador and the release of their leader. <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1653725/tlp-march-pierces-through-multi-tier-security-in-lahore-and-sheikhupura-baffles-police">They breached the security cordons</a> in Lahore battling the police on their march towards Islamabad.<br />
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The protestors attacked the police with petrol bombs, sticks and stones. Many people with serious injuries were taken to the hospital.</p>