Islamic religious preacher Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi has died in Lahore days after he had threatened France with a nuclear attack.
According to the reports, the 54-year-old Khadim Hussain Rizvi, one of the influential Pakistani Islamic clerics, died in hospital in the eastern city of Lahore after “suffering from a fever”. According to the party’s spokesperson, Hamza, the TLP chief had been experiencing difficulty in breathing and was running a fever since Monday.
Rizvi, who is the founder of TLP, has been a staunch supporter of blasphemy laws in Pakistan and has time-and-again hit the streets to protest against any reforms to the country’s ultra-conservative laws. Under Rizvi’s leadership, the TLP has staged various protests, including violent protests that erupted in the country in 2018 after Pakistan’s supreme court acquitted a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, of blasphemy charges.
Rizvi was extremely popular across Pakistan, especially in the country’s most populous province of Punjab. Khadim Rizvi was also an ardent follower of 19th century Islamic theologian Imam Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi, the founder of the Barelvi sect.
Rizvi was forefront at anti-France rallies in Pakistan
Rizvi was also at the forefront of recent protests in the country against France for the publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The Islamic cleric had also called for a boycott of French products and demanded Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to send back French ambassador from Islamabad.
During these protests, Rizvi had called Pakistan to launch nuclear attacks against France for its alleged act of ‘Islamophobia’ after the European country had taken a vow to fight the radical Islamic terrorism.
Influential Pakistani Panjabi Mullah Khadim Rizvi = Extention of the Pakistani Panjaby Army asks the Armed Forces to drop “Nuclear Bomb” on #France
— J (@Sootradhar) October 30, 2020
France must take a hard look at Pakistani’s living in France and EU.
pic.twitter.com/olufxmRmt2#StandWithFrance
Khadim Hussain Rizvi had threatened the Netherlands with an ‘atom bomb’ attack
Not just threatening France, in 2018, the hardline cleric had also threatened the Netherlands with an ‘atom bomb’ after one of the country’s political group had organised a competition to draw Prophet Mohammad.
Warning Netherlands, Rizvi had said that if he were given “the atom bomb”, he would “wipe Holland off the face of this earth” if it allowed a competition of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
“If they give me the atom bomb I would remove Holland from the face of the earth before they can hold a competition of caricatures… I will wipe them off the face of this earth,” had said Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan founder.
Rizvi, who was born on June 22, 1966 in Attock district of Punjab, attained his Islamic education in subjects – Hifz and Tajweed from Jhelum madrassa. He later went on to attain further religious education – Dars-e-Nizami – from the Jamia Nizamia Rizvia institute in Lahore.
He founded the hardline Islamic organisation Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan on August 1, 2015, to start a movement against reformation of Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws.
