Thousands stage anti-France protests in Bangladesh, Pakistan

Muslims in South Asia vented their fury at France on Friday and torched an effigy of President Emmanuel Macron over his recent remarks on Islam, with tens of thousands flooding the streets.
Smaller anti-France protests also took place in the Middle East after Macron’s defense of the right to publish controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him and his progeny, — a position that has sparked anger across the Muslim world.
Huge crowds took to the streets of Dhaka to condemn the French leader after Friday prayers — the Bangladeshi capital’s second anti-France protest in five days.
“We are all soldiers of Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him and his progeny” the crowd chanted as demonstrators called for a boycott of French goods and some burned an effigy of Macron.
Police said 12,000 people took part in the Dhaka rally, though independent observers and organizers claimed more than 40,000 marched in the city. Smaller crowds gathered outside hundreds of mosques elsewhere in the capital and around the country.
“France is insulting the world’s two billion Muslims. President Macron must apologize for his crimes,” said Gazi Ataur Rahman, a senior leader of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, one of the political parties which called the protests.
Around 10,000 people marched through Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, after Friday prayers in what was organized as a procession to mark the Prophet’s birthday but which was charged with anti-France anger.
Around 2,000 protesters in Islamabad marched towards the French embassy.