HYDERABAD, Feb 21: The prayer leader (Pesh Imam) of the Jamia Muhammadi Masjid Ahl-i-Hadith in Mir Nabi Bux Town was arrested under the blasphemy law by the Pinyari police on Saturday.

The Pesh Imam, Raees Ansari, was reported to have burned old pages of the Holy Quran on rooftop of the mosque to bury the ash in a can. The burnt pages flew in the air and fell in the locality.

Soon, a mob reached the mosque and tried to occupy it. Some furious residents climbed over a wall and entered the mosque. Meanwhile, City Taluka Nazim Moinuddin Shaikh, Muttahida Majli-i-Amal MPA Abdul Rehman Rajput, Muttahida Qaumi Movement's zonal organizer Siraj Rajput and TPO Qamar Raza Jaskani arrived there and tried to pacify the angry people.

The residents again tried to occupy the mosque but police prevented them from doing so. A large number of activists of the Sunni Tehrik, led by Khalid Qadri, gathered there, raising slogans against the Pesh Imam.

Tension mounted in the area as a supporter of the Pesh Imam threatened to open fire on the crowed if anybody dared come forward. Police intervened, arrested the Pesh Imam and registered a case under section 295-B of the Blasphemy Act against him and three others, Shakeel, Sattar and Naeem, on the complaint of Nasir Qadri.

Some unidentified persons, present in the mosque, were detained by police but let off soon as they had gone to offer prayers. TPO Jaskani told this correspondent that Ansari had admitted that he had burned the pages of Holy Quran, instead of throwing them in the Phuleli Canal because usually it contained dirty water. He said that he would have filled the burnt pages in a tin can and buried it.