New Delhi: Spanish authorities, last week, arrested 11 Pakistanis in Barcelona for alleged ties to Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a far-right Islamist party in Pakistan. The accused were apprehended in an early morning joint operation by the Spanish National Police and the Italian police forces.
In a post on X, the Spanish police stated that those arrested were charged with inciting violence, operating through encrypted channels, and allegedly calling for beheadings for blasphemy.
The operation marked the third phase of a three-year-long investigation into radical groups operating in Barcelona, reportedly. A total of 30 arrests have been made over the past three years. In the current phase of the operation, the police arrested 10 members of the group in Barcelona. Meanwhile, one was apprehended in Piacenza, Italy, by the Italian law enforcement in a joint operation.
The alleged leader of the group—reportedly associated with the TLP—is a 55-year-old Pakistani who used encrypted messaging platforms to incite violent actions and praise attacks over blasphemy allegations in Europe and Pakistan, a Pakistani media report stated.
It further said that officials also uncovered a separate online group led by a woman—now detained—who was allegedly running a women-only group to assist in target selection.
According to the report, the suspects have been charged with terrorist financing, recruitment, glorification of terrorism, and inciting extremism, and were brought to Spain’s Central Investigative Court No. 6 last week.
Also Read: Aaqib Javed is a clown, says Jason Gillespie. Pakistanis agree
TLP and its influence
TLP, formed in 2015 by Pakistani cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, is a far-right religious party that calls for those accused of blasphemy to be put to death and celebrates the perpetrators. They are followers of the Barelvi sect of Sunni Islam.
The religious party is known for its violent protests against any attempts to modify Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, as well as for its involvement in the killing of police officers and calls for the execution of Supreme Court justices.
The group advocates for the establishment of Sharia as the law of the land in Pakistan through a gradual legal and political process.
In 2018, TLP secured 2.13 million votes and emerged as the fifth most popular party in Pakistan. In the 2024 elections, TLP remained the fifth most popular party, receiving 2.89 million votes.
TLP members have often been accused of targeting minority groups in Pakistan, especially the Ahmadiyyas, who are the largest religious minority in the country. In the most recent such incident, 25 Ahmadiyyas had to be taken into protective custody in Karachi, Pakistan after TLP members stopped them from offering Friday prayers.
Internationally, they have made headlines as well. In 2018, following Dutch politician Geert Wilders’s announcement of a planned contest to draw caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, widespread protests erupted in Pakistan.
In response, TLP leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi vowed to order nuclear strikes on the Netherlands and remove “Holland from the face of the earth before they can hold a competition of caricatures.” As a result of security concerns and threats, Geert Wilders eventually cancelled the cartoon contest.
Following this, in October 2020, after the killing of French school teacher Samuel Paty by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee in Paris, the TLP published an article praising the murder. They referred to the killer as a “Shaheed (martyr)” and “Mujahid (fighter)” and included a photo of Paty’s severed, bloodied head, which the killer had initially shared on X. The post was later removed.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
Also Read: Maryam Nawaz fired doctor who had already resigned. ‘TikTok mentality,’ say Pakistani doctors