Pakistan condemns fresh caricatures of prophet Mohammed

Islamabad - Pakistani lawmakers on Thursday criticised fresh caricatures of the Muslim prophet Mohammed which appeared in a special edition of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, officials said.

"This house condemns the publication of cartoons of the prophet in France," read a resolution adopted in the National Assembly, the lower chamber of the country's parliament.

All parties supported the resolution.

"We urge the international community, including the European Union, to make sure such things are not repeated," the resolution said.

The move comes a day after the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo, the magazine attacked by Islamist gunmen last week, hit newsstands across the world with a cartoon of Muhammad on the cover.

After the meeting, the lawmakers marched in front of the parliament building in Islamabad.

"Why do people in the West do this when they know the punishment for this is death in our shariah [law]?" Railways Minister Saad Rafiq said at the rally.

Protest marches

At least 12 people, including some of the magazine's cartoonists, were killed when two Muslim gunmen stormed the publication's Paris office.

Several Islamic groups in Pakistan have announced protest marches against the publication, scheduled for Friday.

The activists of Sunni Tehreek, a group that controls an estimated 100 000 mosques across the country, plans to rally in all major cities after Friday prayers.

"We will tell the world that the caricatures have hurt the sentiments of over a billion Muslims," Sarwat Ijaz Qardi, the group's chief, said in a statement.

The Jamaat-e-Islami political party, which is part of a coalition government in the north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, would also participate in the rallies, its chief Sirajul Haq said.

A cleric in Peshawar city this week held funeral prayers for the gunmen responsible for the attack on Charlie Hebdo, but only a couple of dozen people participated.