Pakistan's capital blocked off over anti-France protest

Pakistan authorities sealed off a major road into the capital Islamabad for a second day Monday as a thousand of demonstrators held fresh anti-France protests.

A rally in the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi which attracted up to 5,000 people on Sunday spilled over into Monday, with around a thousand protesters gathered at the roadblock preventing them from entering the capital.

Commuters faced lengthy delays on alternative routes into the city.

Mobile phone services were restored around lunchtime on Monday, after being suspended for more than 24 hours to prevent rally organisers from coordinating with each other.

Pakistan has seen small and scattered protests over the past few weeks in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's recent remarks on Islam.

The French president spoke out after an extremist beheaded a teacher near Paris after he showed Islamophobic Charlie Hebdo cartoons that insult the Prophet Mohammed during a class. All depictions of the Prophet are forbidden by Islam.

The president said the teacher "was killed because Islamists want our future".

Macron's comments triggered anger across the Muslim world, with tens of thousands in Pakistan, neighbouring Iran and other Muslim countries in South Asia flooding the streets and organising anti-French boycotts.

Pakistan has lodged a complaint with France over what it called a "systematic Islamophobic campaign" in the European nation.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused the French president of attacking the Muslim faith and urged Islamic countries to work together to counter what he called growing repression in Europe.