GARHI HABIBULLAH, Oct 13: Four people handed over their television sets for setting on fire after the Imam (prayer leader) of Eid Gaah, Garhi Habibullah, issued a call to the general public to destroy their TVs to put an end to ‘increasing obscenity’.

Prayer leader Shafqat-ur-Rehman, when contacted by this reporter, said he had issued the call to general public for putting their TV sets on fire because he believed that obscenity being spread through cable networks was responsible for the devastating earthquake.

“I made a call to this effect during combined Dua following Fajr prayers on Monday (Oct 10, 2005)” said Mr Rehman, adding that “the destruction caused by the earthquake was God’s wrath for the obscenity promoted by cable networks”.

It was only six months ago cable network started in Garhi Habibullah.

People of the area housing Markazi Eid Gaah (Central mosque where Eid prayers are offered) told this reporter that the prayer leader had set ablaze all the four TV handed over to him.

The prayer leader, talking to Dawn, said that a number of people had pledged to hand over their TV sets to him.

However, only four turned up because a vast majority of the local people had lost household items, including TV sets, when their homes destroyed by the quake.

He said that during the first two days following the tremors, he had led about 50 funeral prayers— much more than the number of funeral prayers he led in a week in normal days.

“I happened to lead one or, at the most, two funeral prayers per week,” said Mr Rehman, adding that “the imam of the adjoining Khawajgan mosque, led some 20 funeral prayers on Sunday, last”.

Because of the complexity of the situation, he said, in most of the cases, mass funerals had been offered as victims belonged to a single family or to the same locality.

This reporter saw a group of 10 people offering mass funeral of four persons belonging to a single family.