Radical Pakistan Party Releases 11 Police Hostages After Anti-France Protests

The officers had been held at a TLP mosque stronghold in Lahore, which is now packed with supporters and surrounded by police.

Eleven Pakistani police officers seized by supporters of a radical Islamist group as part of their campaign to get the French ambassador expelled have been released, officials said Monday. The officers were grabbed as hostages Sunday by supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) during violent protests in Lahore. Video circulating on social media -- and confirmed unofficially by police as genuine -- showed some of them bloodied and bruised, with bandages around their heads. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the police had been released early Monday after "negotiations" with the TLP, which the government banned last week after effectively labelling it a terrorist organisation.