A Pakistani vendor arranges morning newspapers with front-page-coverage of the attack by gunmen on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris, at a roadside newsstand in Islamabad on January 8, 2015. French security forces on January 8 launched a massive manhunt for two brothers suspected of killing 12 people in an Islamist attack on the satirical weekly in Paris, the deadliest attack in France in half a century. AFP PHOTO/ Aamir QURESHI
AFP/Islamabad
Pakistan yesterday condemned as “terrorism” an Islamist attack on a French magazine that has outraged some Muslims for its irreverent cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, despite its own tough laws which make insulting the Prophet punishable by death.
Masked gunmen burst into the offices of the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine yesterday morning, killing 12 people including some of France’s most outspoken journalists, in the country’s bloodiest attack in half a century.
“Pakistan condemns the brutal terrorist attack in Paris that resulted in the loss of many lives and has left several others injured,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“Pakistan deplores terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We extend our condolences to the government and people of France on the loss of life.”
In neighbouring Afghanistan, where rallies were held against the same magazine in 2012, President Ashraf Ghani branded the attack as “heinous”.
“Killing of defenceless people and civilians is a heinous act of terror, there is no justification for this heinous act,” he said in a statement.
The Afghan Taliban meanwhile published an article on their website describing the killings as “an alarm bell for those who have in the past insulted Islam and the prophet”, but stopping short of openly supporting the attack.
In September 2012, between 200-300 people marched through Kabul to protest the publication of new cartoons of Muhammad by Charlie Hebdo, as well as the distribution of an American anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims”.
Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly magazine, has long provoked controversy by mocking many religions with provocative drawings, a practice that has outraged some Muslims.
