EU urged the government to condemn all such statements which incites violence. PHOTO: AFP
“The European Union and its Member States deplore the statement made in Parliament by ANP Lawmaker on Monday,” the 27-nation bloc said in a statement issued on Thursday.
While condemning Bilour’s offer, the statement urged the government to take note of all such statements which incite violence. “We encourage the government of Pakistan to condemn all such statements inciting violence and terrorism,” the statement added.
Bilour, who in September 2012 had announced a $100,000 bounty for anyone who would kill the producer of the sacrilegious ‘Innocence of Muslims’, stirred new controversy earlier this week when he used the floor of the National Assembly to announce head-money for the owner of the French weekly which had published blasphemous caricatures.
Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly on Monday, Bilour also announced a $100,000 compensation for the families of those killed during the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris last month. “I had already declared that I will not tolerate any attack on the sanctity of the Holy Prophet (pbuh),” said Bilour.
A diplomatic source told The Express Tribune that the EU has taken up the issue with the Pakistan government.
COMMENTS (18)
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The price for fooling the world and fooling itself is steep. Stop dragging Modi's name in your muck. If the same energy Pakistan expends on conspiracy theories was expended at nation-building, Pakistan would be a different place. According to these theories every nation (except Pak, of course) will kill its own people to besmirch Pakistan. Go figure !
Time for the people of France to set up an Internet crow fund site to raise a multimillion Euro bounty on Bilour's head!!!
What would happen if owner of the Charlie Hebdo may announce a head money of $4,00,000 for Bilour?
Before issuing such statements Bilour should consider that terrorists have last year killed his real brother in Pakistan in a terrorist attack in Peshawar.
The image of Pakistan have gone from bad to worst when political leaders of Pakistan gives such sweeping statements.
Condemnation of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists was more than enough by the government of Pakistan and there was no need for Bilour to gain cheap publicity by announcing $2,00,000 bounty.
If Bilour has the money and wants to help - why not donate the $200,000 to the family of the French Muslim police officer that was executed by his extremist buddies?
I am with the EU on this.
I suggest the EU now starts identifying all the assets of the ANP leadership in EU countries and start freezing them until BILLO apologises.
I am confident ANP will take BILLO by the ear, make him squat like a murga (chicken) and beg for forgiveness.
These cheap political stunts by has been politicians cause immense damage to Pakistan.
For the Indians on this webiste making snide remarks, stop attacking christians (and muslims, and sikhs) in India, before you start pointing fingers at Pakistan.
@Sid: You wanted U.S. to attack Pakistan instead of Afghanistan or Iraq, too. I remember! What do you think they should do to India whose news of violence against Christians & Kashmiris never allowed in any papers? Shall IMF Stop giving loan of record $60 billion for progress and ban Indians from EU? Let's see who side ET is on!
Bilour used his freedom of EXPRESSION. This is what we have learnt from EU.
EU should rue the day they boycotted Modi as Modi is the right person to cure the extremists.
and EU should also condemn continuous act of violation of Freedom of Speech by its media agency. And Govt. of Pakistan should work on bringing a positive name to Pakistan image by working in education sector and related work. Plus i guess like EU, Pakistan govt. also believes in freedom of speech, and according to EU, freedom of speech involves speaking ill about anything or anyone to any level even it hurts the feelings.
It's anaIng to see how tribune is allowing such comments by indian trolls to be posted . Though many times my comments which have been very neutral haven't gone through
@Lahore wala: Let’s start with an Interpol warrant for Modi. For aiding and abetting in the murder/genocide of Muslims in Gujrat, when he was Chief Minister there.
Start, no one listens to your nonsense anymore. You will have a better chance of succeeding with a warrant if you approach the International Court of Justice for war crimes and Genocide against Nawaz Sharif and his army Chief for the genocide in Balochistan and North Waziristan.
People like this are more dangerous than those at Charlie Hebdo.........and our government remains silent because of political patronage.
@Lahore wala: Let’s start with an Interpol warrant for Modi. Go ahead. Nobody's stopping you. BTW, do you possess any evidence against Modi, besides those that have already been presented in the Indian courts? Because if not, you might get laughed out of Interpol. Coming back to the topic at hand, it is indeed shocking that an MP can make a statement inciting murder-without-trial of a private citizen of another country. The fact that this statement was made in the Parliament, and didn't invoke any murmur or protest, shows the caliber of the rest of the parliamentarians too.
Billo is an opportunist politician. He's using such tactics to score points with TTP as he owns various movie theaters, plazas in NWFP which in the past were often the target of TTP nuts.
Pakistan can NEVER change. The dogma of violence, it would seem, has almost encoded itself into the genes.
@Sid: Let's start with an Interpol warrant for Modi. For aiding and abetting in the murder/genocide of Muslims in Gujrat, when he was Chief Minister there. He was declared a persona non grata in European Union. All the Hindutva, BJP, RSS/Shiv Sena members are terrorists. They need to be on a visa exclusion list. They believe in hindu supremacy in Hindustan. And are considered very dangerous. Very much like the Ku Klux Klan of US.
ET, please print, we know you are owned by hindus. Everyone saying that.
If EU is serious, they should stop funding Pakistan or granting asylum or visa to it's citizens. Hopefully with those steps Pakistan ay stop patronizing extremists like Bilour.