Over 170 arrested for attacks on Pakistan KFC outlets in Gaza war protests
Police have arrested close to 200 people in Pakistan in recent weeks after more than 10 group attacks on outlets of the United States-based fast-food chain KFC, sparked by anti-US sentiment, unconditional US backing for Washington's close ally Israel and opposition to Israel's war in Gaza, officials say.
The fast-food chain has become a target of protest and boycott calls by Islamist parties since the start of the war in Gaza as they link the brand to US support for Israel.
At least 178 people have been arrested, the officials said this week.
Police in major cities in Pakistan – including the southern port city of Karachi, the eastern city of Lahore and the capital, Islamabad – confirmed at least 11 incidents in which KFC chicken restaurants were attacked by protesters armed with sticks and vandalised.
A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said one KFC employee was shot and killed this week in a store on the outskirts of Lahore by unknown gunmen. The official added there was no protest at the time and police were investigating whether the killing was politically motivated or for some other reason.
In Lahore, police said they were ramping up security at 27 KFC outlets after two attacks took place and five were prevented.
'We are investigating the role of different individuals and groups in these attacks,' Faisal Kamran, a senior Lahore police officer told the Reuters news agency, adding that 11 people, including a member of the Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), have been arrested in the city. He added the protests were not officially organised by the TLP.
TLP spokesman Rehan Mohsin Khan said the group 'has urged Muslims to boycott Israeli products, but it has not given any call for protest outside KFC'.
'If any other person claiming to be a TLP leader or activist has indulged in such activity, it should be taken as his personal act which has nothing to do with the party's policy,' Khan said.
Western brands have been hit by boycotts and other forms of protests in Pakistan, other Muslim-majority countries and several Western nations over Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In February last year, McDonald's cited boycott campaigns in the Middle East, Indonesia and Malaysia for sales growing just 0.7 percent during the fourth quarter of 2023, compared with 16.5 percent growth in the same quarter the previous year.
Unilever – which produces Dove soap, Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Knorr stock cubes – also said sales in Indonesia in the same quarter had experienced a double-digit decline as a result of 'geopolitically focused, consumer-facing campaigns'.
A KFC restaurant in the Pakistan-administered region of Kashmir was also set on fire in March last year as protesters chanted 'Free Palestine.'
More than 51,900 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel's war, which began 18 months ago.
At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
KFC and its parent company Yum Brands have not yet responded to news of the arrests in Pakistan.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Qatar Tribune
8 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
The Trump effect: Apple shifts operations from China to India amidst ongoing tariffs, trade war
Agencies New York The heat from US President Donald Trump's trade war against China may have turned down a notch after the two countries reached a temporary truce in mid-May, but Trump's tariff policy has created a climate of uncertainty among American companies with operations in China. Tech companies reliant on Chinese components, technology, and skills are particularly hard hit, and under pressure to move their operations away from China, preferably to the US. Even the iconic Apple iPhone brand has not escaped unscathed. Caught in the crossfire of the US-China trade war and in a bid to avoid falling foul of the resulting economic fallout of the tensions between Washington and Beijing,Apple is gradually moving its iPhone production from China to India. Trump has temporarily pulled back on his 145 percent tariff hike against China, which in turn suspended its retaliatory tariffs against the US of up to 125 iPhones are, for now, exempt from US tariffs, the components used for their production are not, and companies like Apple find themselves in the eye of Trump's anti-China tsunami. Despite a five percent growth in net profit and revenue for its fiscal second quarter,Apple predicts losses in the coming fiscal months as a result of the trade CEO Tim Cook, fearful that the trade and tariff situation is unlikely to change, is moving swiftly to protect his company by relocating some of its operations from China to India. Beijing's loss is becoming New Delhi's gain, with the company indicating that the majority of iPhones in the US market would soon be imported from India, where the company has had a decades-long presence. In 2016,Cook visited the country and announced the establishment of an iOS developers lab in Bengaluru, India's Silicon Valley. In 2022, Apple's investment in India grew further when the company decided to make its iPhone 14 models in that country. Apple's first stores in India opened in 2023. According to reports, India already makes one in five iPhones used worldwide, assembling $22 billion worth of iPhones between March 2024 and March 2025, and increasing its production by 60 percent as it shifts production away from China. Further boosting Apple's presence in India is the recent decision by the main manufacturer of its iPhones, the Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, to invest $1.5 billion into its India unit. Hon Hai, which has been building new plants and adding production capacity in southern India, is also increasing its investments in the US to mitigate the geopolitical headwinds arising from further tariffs. Union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has welcomed the investment by Apple and other original equipment manufacturers (OEM), saying: 'Apple has decided to source and produce all its mobile phones in India in the years to come…you are choosing affordability, you are choosing reliability, you are choosing originality.' Minister of State for Telecommunication Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani noted India's remarkable transformation from an importer of mobile phones in 2014 to a leading producer and exporter. Meanwhile, as insurance against the geopolitical impact of the Trade War, Apple, which does not produce smartphones in the US, has pledged to spend $500 billion in America over the next four years and employ more workers domestically. While Apple and other tech companies operating from China are mulling over their options amidst Trump's see-saw trade policies,the iPhone manufacturer's increased investment in India is a welcome boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' programme. This initiative seeks to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture, and assemble products in India.
Qatar Tribune
8 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
US, China set for trade talks in London today
Agencies WASHINGTON Three of US President Donald Trump's top aides will meet with their Chinese counterparts in London on Monday for talks aimed at resolving a trade dispute between the world's two largest economies that has kept global markets on edge. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent the United States in the talks, Trump announced in a post on his Truth Social platform without providing further details. China's foreign ministry said on Saturday that vice premier He Lifeng will be in the United Kingdom between June 8 and June 13, adding that the first meeting of the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism would be held during this visit. 'The meeting should go very well,' Trump wrote. Trump spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday in a rare leader-to-leader call amid weeks of brewing trade tensions and a dispute over critical minerals. Trump and Xi agreed to visit one another and asked their staffs to hold talks in the meantime. Both countries are under pressure to relieve tensions, with the global economy under pressure over Chinese control over the rare earth mineral exports of which it is the dominant producer and investors more broadly anxious about Trump's wider effort to impose tariffs on goods from most US trading partners. China, meanwhile, has seen its own supply of key US imports like chip-design software and nuclear plant parts curtailed. The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 in Geneva to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump returned to the presidency in January. That preliminary deal sparked a global relief rally in stock markets, and US indexes that had been in or near bear market levels have recouped the lion's share of their losses. The S&P 500 stock index, which at its lowest point in early April was down nearly 18% after Trump unveiled his sweeping 'Liberation Day' tariffs on goods from across the globe, is now only about 2 percent below its record high from mid-February. The final third of that rally followed the US-China truce struck in Geneva. The Trump administration had expected China to lift restrictions on rare earth materials that are critical components for a wide range of electronics, but China has largely refused, causing intense displeasure inside the Trump administration and prompting a recent series of measures to be imposed on the country, three administration officials told CNNlast week. For example, the White House warned US companies against using AI chips made by China's national tech champion Huawei. It stopped US companies from selling to China software that is used to design semiconductors. And the US State Department announced it would 'aggressively revoke visas' for some Chinese students in America. China, in turn, has accused the United States of 'provoking new economic and tradefrictions.' 'The United States has been unilaterally provoking new economic and trade frictions, exacerbating the uncertainty and instability of bilateral economic and trade relations,' the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Sunday. In the meantime Bessent, America's chief negotiator in the détente with China, said talks with Beijing had stalled. The talks in the UK are significant, and much is riding on their success – US economic growth remains steady but there are signs of cracking. And no one wants to return to April's standoff, which threatened to plunge the global economy into a recession. US stocks, which had rallied earlier in the day on a strong jobs report, rose a bit higher after Trump's Truth Social message about the resumed talks. The Dow was up 450 points, or 1.1 percent. The S&P 500 rose 1.2 percent, and the Nasdaq was 1.3 percent higher. Still, that temporary deal did not address broader concerns that strain the bilateral relationship, from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and US complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model. Trump has repeatedly threatened an array of punitive measures on trading partners, only to revoke some of them at the last minute. The on-again, off-again approach has baffled world leaders and spooked business executives. China sees mineral exports as a source of leverage. Halting those exports could put domestic political pressure on the Republican US president if economic growth sags because companies cannot make mineral-powered products. In recent years, US officials have identified China as its top geopolitical rival and the only country in the world able to challenge the United States economically and militarily.
Qatar Tribune
a day ago
- Qatar Tribune
UK aims to ‘deepen' India ties
London: British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will seek to deepen UK-India economic ties as he visits New Delhi this weekend, saying Britain's recently agreed trade deal with the country is 'just the start of our ambitions.' Trade and migration will be at the top of the agenda for the Foreign Secretary's trip, during which he will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister S Jaishankar. The Foreign Office said Lammy, who was expected in New Delhi on Saturday, would also raise 'the recent escalation in tensions following the Pahalgam terrorist attack, and how the welcomed sustained period of peace can be best supported in the interests of stability in the region.' Pakistan and India agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire last month after rising hostilities between the two nuclear-armed rivals followed a deadly attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir. Ahead of the visit, Lammy said: 'Signing a free trade agreement is just the start of our ambitions - we're building a modern partnership with India for a new global era.' (PA Media/dpa)
