Protest in Pakistani capital ends after government warning

Protesters who had gathered for a sit-in in the Pakistani capital have ended their action hours after government warned of a forced evacuation.

Protest leaders on Wednesday called demonstrators to disperse, saying a deal was reached with the government.

They added that assurances were given by the government that there would be no attempt to amend the blasphemy laws, a controversial plan over which the sit-in began a few days ago.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan warned that the government will be compelled to use force if the sit-in is not halted. Thousands of riot police and paramilitary troops have reportedly been deployed around the site of the sit-in.

The action began on Sunday when more than 10,000 people arrived in Islamabad to protest last month's hanging of Mumtaz Qadri, a former officer who assassinated five years ago a liberal Punjab governor over his calls to reform the Pakistan's blasphemy laws. Clashes were reported in the first day of the sit-in although police failed to disperse protesters through firing tear gas.

The execution of Qadri was part of the government's latest efforts to crack down on militant groups which have staged deadly attacks on civilians and security forces across Pakistan over the past years.

The sit-in comes just days after a breakaway faction of pro-Taliban militants carried out an attack on Christians gathering for Easter Sunday in a park in Lahore, killing 72 people, most of them Muslim.

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