Published March 2001 by NEWSLINE republished for educational purposes solely
Frontier Rage
By Behroz Khan
For the first time in its 15-year existence, the offices of The Frontier Post and its sister-publication, Maidan, were sealed by the Frontier government for publishing a highly blasphemous letter against the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Five employees of the paper were arrested and indicted under the blasphemy law. Moreover, the letter's publication sparked a spate of violence and angry reprisal in the city of Peshawar. Student activists of various religious parties torched the paper's printing press, newsprint and furniture. Meanwhile, unruly mobs went on the rampage destroying private property as religious leaders delivered inflammatory speeches against the journalist community.
The Post's problems began when a letter from one BenDzac, apparently a Jew, arrived by e-mail for the letters' page. The letter went to the acting head of the section, who upon interrogation told police, that he did not bother to go through its contents but approved its publication simply after reading the heading titled, 'Why Muslims Hate Jews?' Reportedly, this staffer had been under treatment at a drug rehabilitation centre at a Peshawar hospital.
The Peshawar police has lodged FIRS against the five employees of The Frontier Post under Section 295 A,B,C/505 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 16 MPO. The offenders face life imprisonment and fine if convicted under Section 295 C, commonly known as the blasphemy law. Those arrested include the news editor, Aftab Ahmad, chief reporter Imtiaz Hussain, an 80-year old feature writer, Qazi Ghulam Sarwar, sub-editor Munawar Mohsin and the computer section head, Wajihul Hassan. The armed guard of the paper is also in police custody for carrying an unlicensed Kalashnikov. The owner of the paper, Rehmat Shah Afridi, has been in prison for the past one year on drug smuggling charges. Arrest warrants have also been issued for his son, Shah Mehmud Afridi, the acting chief executive of the paper, who was in Islamabad on the day the letter appeared in The Frontier Post.
Strangely enough, the district administration closed down the offices of the group's Urdu daily as well, although it had nothing to do with the incident, and arrested seven of its employees. The government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. Journalists, meanwhile, are demanding that the arrested journalists be released immediately and the law be allowed to take its course. At a meeting in Peshawar, they criticised the government's failure to protect the Post's printing press from the wrath of the young students, who were led by the Jamaat's provincial naib amir, Hakeem Abdul Waheed, and Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, the party's district president for Peshawar, along with other leaders including Haji Dost Muhammad and an, advocate Israrullah. The police, meanwhile, made no attempts to stop the mob at any point as they smashed and gutted their way through the Post's offices. Next, the student activists smashed the windows of the Peshawar Press Club and then headed for a nearby government high school damaging furniture in classrooms and smashing doors and windows. The charged activists demanded death for the publisher of the letter. Even the ANP got into the act: Sardar Ahmad Khan Yousafzai, provincial president of the ANP students wing, announced a two-million rupee reward for the killer of the letter's author.
Meanwhile, the government's action of charging innocent staffers of the paper under the blasphemy law endangers the lives of these journalists in such a highly charged scenario. In the past, religious groups and party activists have been known to attack and intimidate journalists, quite often, for sins not of their own making. Fakhr-i-Alam, a reporter with The Muslim's Peshawar bureau, was manhandled by JUI (Fazal) workers who attacked the office for publishing Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman's cartoon with his election rival and former film heroine, Mussarat Shaheen. The cartoon was published from Islamabad. Saeed Hashmi, a reporter of the Urdu daily, Mashriq, was forced to seek political asylum in France after he was persecuted by religious parties for reproducing material on the sexual abuse of children at religious seminaries. The research work was done by the Islamabad-based NGO, Sahil, and Saeed Hashmi had merely translated the material that was published without his byline.
Curiously enough, the Jamaat-i-Islami which was in the forefront of demanding capital punishment for the persons responsible for printing the sacrilegious letter has printed the same letter in its own newspaper, Jasarat. The government has yet to move against Jasarat while journalists have passed a resolution condemning the letter's reproduction in Urdu which they felt was aimed at arousing more outrage against the press from people on the streets.
Frontier Rage
By Behroz Khan
For the first time in its 15-year existence, the offices of The Frontier Post and its sister-publication, Maidan, were sealed by the Frontier government for publishing a highly blasphemous letter against the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Five employees of the paper were arrested and indicted under the blasphemy law. Moreover, the letter's publication sparked a spate of violence and angry reprisal in the city of Peshawar. Student activists of various religious parties torched the paper's printing press, newsprint and furniture. Meanwhile, unruly mobs went on the rampage destroying private property as religious leaders delivered inflammatory speeches against the journalist community.
The Post's problems began when a letter from one BenDzac, apparently a Jew, arrived by e-mail for the letters' page. The letter went to the acting head of the section, who upon interrogation told police, that he did not bother to go through its contents but approved its publication simply after reading the heading titled, 'Why Muslims Hate Jews?' Reportedly, this staffer had been under treatment at a drug rehabilitation centre at a Peshawar hospital.
The Peshawar police has lodged FIRS against the five employees of The Frontier Post under Section 295 A,B,C/505 of the Pakistan Penal Code and 16 MPO. The offenders face life imprisonment and fine if convicted under Section 295 C, commonly known as the blasphemy law. Those arrested include the news editor, Aftab Ahmad, chief reporter Imtiaz Hussain, an 80-year old feature writer, Qazi Ghulam Sarwar, sub-editor Munawar Mohsin and the computer section head, Wajihul Hassan. The armed guard of the paper is also in police custody for carrying an unlicensed Kalashnikov. The owner of the paper, Rehmat Shah Afridi, has been in prison for the past one year on drug smuggling charges. Arrest warrants have also been issued for his son, Shah Mehmud Afridi, the acting chief executive of the paper, who was in Islamabad on the day the letter appeared in The Frontier Post.
Strangely enough, the district administration closed down the offices of the group's Urdu daily as well, although it had nothing to do with the incident, and arrested seven of its employees. The government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. Journalists, meanwhile, are demanding that the arrested journalists be released immediately and the law be allowed to take its course. At a meeting in Peshawar, they criticised the government's failure to protect the Post's printing press from the wrath of the young students, who were led by the Jamaat's provincial naib amir, Hakeem Abdul Waheed, and Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, the party's district president for Peshawar, along with other leaders including Haji Dost Muhammad and an, advocate Israrullah. The police, meanwhile, made no attempts to stop the mob at any point as they smashed and gutted their way through the Post's offices. Next, the student activists smashed the windows of the Peshawar Press Club and then headed for a nearby government high school damaging furniture in classrooms and smashing doors and windows. The charged activists demanded death for the publisher of the letter. Even the ANP got into the act: Sardar Ahmad Khan Yousafzai, provincial president of the ANP students wing, announced a two-million rupee reward for the killer of the letter's author.
Meanwhile, the government's action of charging innocent staffers of the paper under the blasphemy law endangers the lives of these journalists in such a highly charged scenario. In the past, religious groups and party activists have been known to attack and intimidate journalists, quite often, for sins not of their own making. Fakhr-i-Alam, a reporter with The Muslim's Peshawar bureau, was manhandled by JUI (Fazal) workers who attacked the office for publishing Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman's cartoon with his election rival and former film heroine, Mussarat Shaheen. The cartoon was published from Islamabad. Saeed Hashmi, a reporter of the Urdu daily, Mashriq, was forced to seek political asylum in France after he was persecuted by religious parties for reproducing material on the sexual abuse of children at religious seminaries. The research work was done by the Islamabad-based NGO, Sahil, and Saeed Hashmi had merely translated the material that was published without his byline.
Curiously enough, the Jamaat-i-Islami which was in the forefront of demanding capital punishment for the persons responsible for printing the sacrilegious letter has printed the same letter in its own newspaper, Jasarat. The government has yet to move against Jasarat while journalists have passed a resolution condemning the letter's reproduction in Urdu which they felt was aimed at arousing more outrage against the press from people on the streets.
No comments:
Post a Comment