KARACHI: Names of sacred personalities and the Holy Quran were defiled in a mosque belonging to a minority Muslim community in Steel Town, police said on Saturday.

Steel Town SHO Farrukh Shaharyar said a suspect broke open the door of Hazrat Salman Farsi mosque early on Friday morning and defiled names of sacred personalities inscribed inside the mosque and ransacked a shelf containing holy books.

Later, when the muezzin arrived for Fajr prayers, he informed the police about it. Senior officers, including Malir in-charge SSP Farrukh Raza, visited the mosque, which belongs to the Shia community.

The SHO said the mosque was being run by the Steel Mills administration and the muezzin, prayer leader and others were employees of the mills.

The police registered an FIR on a complaint of Maulana Hasan Raza under Sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 295-B (defiling, etc. of holy Quran) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.

The officer said they had also invoked the terrorism charge because the suspect through these acts had tried to trigger violence. He said a police forensic team had collected fingerprints from the spot and they believed that there was only one person involved in it.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2019