Ignoring the Imran Khan government’s ultimatum, the radical banned outfit Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) continues its march with thousands of armed activists travelling in cars, buses and on foot, continuing its journey towards Islamabad. Pakistani security forces have barricaded a zone 150 kilometres from Islamabad, Pakistani media is reporting.

But the thousands-strong march of the banned TLP has shown no signs of relenting. According to Pakistani news channels, the protestors also have heavy machinery, including three to four heavy cranes and excavators, to remove the obstructions on the road to Islamabad. 

Massive #TLP March heading towards Islamabad pic.twitter.com/PJYFeIdLiX

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Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called an emergency meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) which was attended by the Pakistani army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the ISI chief, Lt. General  Faiz Hameed among others.

“The meeting lasted two hours and we have not shut the door to talks, but the state’s writ has to be enforced at all cost,” the interior minister Sheikh Rashid said, adding that he wishes to settle the issue amicably.

According to Pakistani media, Imran Khan has asked Rashid and Minister for Religious Affairs Noor-ul-Haq Qadri to talk to the TLP leaders but  Khan’s Information Minister, Fawad Chaudhry ruled out the possibility of negotiations with the TLP until the group cleared all the roads and handed over the culprits, who killed policemen in the last few days of violence.

But so far, TLP leaders are not in a  mood to negotiate until the Imran Khan-led government releases their party chief Saad Rizvi and expels the French ambassador. But Khan made it clear to the militant group that its demand to shut down the French embassy cannot be met.

“France is heading the European Union right now and is against our atomic technology and missile system. We are the Muslim world's biggest power. There is talk of sanctions in America, there is one point left to be fulfilled in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), there are economic crises,” Khan reportedly told his cabinet colleagues on Wednesday.

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The TLP has been demanding the ouster of the French envoy and a  ban on French imports after French president Emmanuel Macron earlier this year defended the freedom of expression of artists who drew caricatures of Prophet Mohammed– an act considered blasphemous in Pakistan and other Islamic countries.

According to the TLP leaders, the government had agreed to most of its demands including the expulsion of the French ambassador. On Sunday,  Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid announced that the government had reached an agreement with the TLP and would release its chief Saad Rizvi and  all detained workers. But  on Wednesday his cabinet colleague Chaudhary said that the government had declared the TLP as a militant organisation and would not allow it to challenge the writ of the state.

Pakistani experts say that the PM Imran Khan is confused  and unable to decide whether he wants to negotiate with the TLP or to use force against it. But experts warn that branding the TLP as a militant organisation and cracking down on it may not be easy on account of the outfit’s mass following.