ISLAMABAD- Pakistan has formally lodged a diplomatic protest with the United Kingdom over threats made against Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Field Marshal Asim Munir during a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) protest held outside the Pakistani consulate in Bradford.
The Foreign Office (FO) confirmed on Friday that a demarche was issued to the UK’s Acting Head of Mission in Islamabad, Matt Cannell. FO spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said the move followed what officials described as highly alarming and provocative actions by demonstrators at the overseas PTI event.According to a video circulated by the “UKPTIOFFICIAL” social media account, a woman speaker at the protest can be heard issuing a threat involving a car bomb against Field Marshal Munir, drawing a comparison to the 1988 plane crash that killed former president General Zia-ul-Haq.
Pakistani officials said the language used during the protest amounted to explicit death threats.Sources said the PTI’s official platforms were used to mobilise protesters in the UK, and that demonstrators employed objectionable and inflammatory rhetoric against the country’s senior military leadership.
The Pakistani government, they added, has taken serious notice of the threats, stressing that British territory must not be used for activities aimed at destabilising Pakistan.Pakistan has urged UK authorities to take strict legal action against those involved and to hold them accountable under British law.
As British High Commissioner Jane Marriott was not in the country, Deputy Head of Mission Matt Cannell was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at around 2pm to receive the demarche.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan shared the video footage and its transcript with UK authorities in both Islamabad and London. In a formal communication, Islamabad expressed “grave concern regarding a serious and unprecedented misuse of British territory” for actions that amount to incitement to terrorism, violence, and internal destabilisation of a sovereign state.The letter noted that PTI UK’s official social media account had circulated content in which individuals, physically present in the UK, openly called for the assassination of Field Marshal Munir. “This content is neither rhetorical nor political,” the letter stated.
“It constitutes explicit incitement to murder and the glorification of violence against the senior military leadership of a UN Member State.”
Officials further warned that the messaging was deliberately amplified to audiences inside Pakistan with the apparent intent of provoking unrest, street violence, and confrontation with state institutions. PTI-linked platforms operating from the UK, the letter added, have repeatedly encouraged disorder and violent mobilisation within Pakistan while remaining beyond domestic accountability.
Pakistan maintained that such actions violate multiple international legal obligations and recalled that it has repeatedly raised concerns in the past over the use of UK territory by individuals and groups involved in militancy, separatism, and violent agitation against the country. While those issues have strained bilateral confidence before, officials said the current incident marks a serious escalation.
“Freedom of expression does not include the freedom to incite murder or civil violence,” the letter concluded. “Political activism does not extend to conspiracy or encouragement of bloodshed, and political asylum does not confer immunity to promote terrorism or destabilisation abroad.”
