PARIS (REUTERS) - France has advised French citizens to temporarily leave Pakistan and warned of serious threats to French interests in the country, two diplomatic sources said on Thursday (April 15), after violent clashes there this week.

Thousands of Pakistani Islamists had clashed with police earlier this week in protest against the arrest of their leader ahead of rallies denouncing French cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad. For Muslims, depictions of the Prophet are blasphemous.