LAHORE/KARACHI The blasphemous caricatures on Facebook website sparked protests throughout Pakistan on Wednesday. Thousands of people staged protests in major cities including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Multan to vent their anger over the blasphemy. Different political and religious parties, students, traders, labour organisations staged protest demonstrations demanding a permanent ban on Facebook. In Lahore, students of University of Engineering and Technology staged a protest demonstration-cum-sit-in outside the Press Club against the Facebook. The students sat on the road in scorching heat to block traffic and chanted slogans against the website operator and demanded of the young generation to boycott the said website. They also demanded of the government to end diplomatic relations with the countries involved in publication of the caricatures of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). In the meanwhile, another group of Mihanj Students Organisation held a protest demonstration and chanted slogans against the operator of the said website Female students of Fatima Jinnah Medical College took out a rally in this regard from their college and went up to The Mall on Sharah-e-Fatima Jinnah. Students were carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans against the website operators and demanded the government to ban the said website. Similarly students UMS University of Management Sciences also took out same rally. Insaf Students Federation took out a same rally from FC College up to Wahdat Road. Tehrik-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool, a platform of all religious parties in a press conference held at local hotel called for a countrywide agitation on May 20-21 (Thursday& Friday). Leaders of Jamat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-e- Islam, Jamiat Ulema Pakistan, Tehrik-e-Insaf,Tanzem-e-Islami, Khaksar Tehrik, Tehrik Minhaj-ul-Quran and others, in their statements, severely condemned the act and observed the act as fuel to fire on already burning flames of clash of civilization. Many people individually phoned to The Nation and demanded of the government to take the matter into UNO, OIC and on other international forums. Khaksar Tehreek Pakistan, Anjuman Talba Islam, Al-Hamdia Students Pakistan staged protest demonstration and rallies against re-publishing of blasphemous caricatures. In Karachi, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Naib Ameer, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, said that West had proved its extremism through publishing the blasphemous caricatures. Large number of JI women activists while carrying banners and placards inscribed with anti-western statements participated in the rally and chanted slogans against the western extremism. In the same way, Jafaria Alliance Pakistan (JAP) Chief, Allama Abbas Kumaili, condemned the competition of blasphemous caricatures on Facebook and demanded of the Muslim rulers to play their role against satanic forces, which are using the freedom of expression in negative way.