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Pakistan: Rioters Attack Newspaper Building Over Blasphemous Letter
WASHINGTON & CAIRO, Jan 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An unruly crowd on Tuesday set fire to the printing press of an English-language local daily in a Pakistani city after it published a blasphemous letter against the Prophet Mohammad (SAW), police and witnesses said.
Hundreds of Muslim protesters rallied in the streets of Peshawar chanting against the newspaper. Witnesses said that most of the protesters were students with many of them members of Pakistan's main Islamic party, the Jamaat-i-Islami.
The crowd blocked roads and diverted traffic as it moved through various parts of Peshawar, residents said. AFP reported that more than 3,000 students assembled at Peshawar University calling for the death penalty for the newspaper's owners.
The Peshawar-based Frontier Post published a letter entitled "Why Muslims Hate Jews?" signed under the name of BenDZac. Staff members said the letter was received via e-mail, from North America. Authorities suspect the author maybe a Zionist.
Pakistani Police used batons and tear gas to disperse the crowd as a group of students attacked commercial stores on their way to the official residence of the provincial governor. According to a police officer, about 15 people were arrested.
After gathering in a mosque near the Frontier Post's offices, outraged protesters ransacked the building and put a match to newsprint machines.
"They pelted bricks and broke open its iron gates," a journalist told AFP. "The press has been totally gutted," he added.
Although police forces were surrounding the scene, they did not interfere in preventing the angry crowd from storming the building.
Police sealed the office on Monday and charged seven senior employees under blasphemy laws.
The provincial government imposed a vague ban on the newspaper.
Police in Peshawar on Monday charged seven senior journalists under severe blasphemy laws carrying death penalty for blaspheming against the Holy Qur'an, the Prophet Mohammed, or any other prophet.
The police took five Frontier Post staff into custody, including three journalists, and charged seven, including the managing editor and chief reporter.
In response to the wave of anger storming the conservative city of Peshawar's streets, the Frontier Post ran a front-page advertisement in competing newspapers Tuesday pleading the nation for pardon, claiming the letter was the result of a "conspiracy" against Pakistan.
"The administration and the management of the Frontier Post profoundly regret the publication in its issue of January 29, 2001, of highly blasphemous material," the letter stated.
"It has injured our feelings equally with every Muslim."
"All we can say at this point is that the matter is the outcome of a conspiracy ... not against the Frontier Post alone, but also against the people and the government of Pakistan and the whole Muslim Ummah."
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and the All-Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation were meeting in Islamabad to discuss the letter among other issues.
"It is unfair to round up other people who were not involved and they should not be punished for something they have not done," one senior journalist said.
Elsewhere, baton-wielding police charged a crowd in Kohat where emotionally charged students blocked traffic and chanted "Down with America" and "Down with Jewish agents."
Military ruler General Pervez Musharraf on Monday denounced the letter.
"The government will not allow publication of such objectionable material," he said
As he defended the freedom of expression and the press, Musharraf said journalists should respect the religious symbols and religious feelings of people in this Islamic state.
Police officers said they were searching for the newspaper's managing editor, Mahmood Afridi, to put him in custody for "abusive remarks against the Holy Prophet [SAW]."
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