ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: A youth group on Tuesday denied it had announced a reward for the deaths of cartoonists who drew blasphemous cartoon in a Danish newspaper. “An impression is being created in the Western media that we have announced a head-money for the cartoonist who drew the insulting cartoons,” said Syed Shahid Gilani, president of Shabab-i-Milli. Shabab-i-Milli is the youth wing of Pakistan’s Jamaat-i-Islami.

Mr Gilani denied announcing the reward saying the youth wing believed in the rule of “constitution and law”.

Copenhagen last month altered its travel advisory for Pakistan after it said an official from Pakistan’s Jamaat-i-Islami allegedly offered the Rs500,000 head-money.

The 12 drawings by two cartoonists appeared in Denmark’s largest circulation daily Jyllands-Posten on Sept 30 and caused an uproar in the Muslim community in Denmark and abroad.

The Danish ambassador to Islamabad, Bent Wigotski, last week said the change in the travel advisory was based on a report published in an Urdu daily on Nov 15.

“The remarks attributed to me in newspapers were the result of some misunderstanding and we have issued a clarification to all media organisations on Tuesday,” Mr Gilani said.

“But the publication of insulting cartoons is condemnable because an attempt has been made to play with the sentiments of Muslims,” Mr Gilani said.—AFP