MUZAFFARABAD: A fire devastated the only studio of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Television (AJKTV) centre on Friday, halting all indoor recording operations at the state-run media outlet until repairs or reconstruction was completed, witnesses and officials said.

The blaze, which reportedly started at around 11:45am due to an alleged short circuit, caught around two dozen staff members present off guard, Shahzad Lolabi, an artist who was incidentally present on the premises, told Dawn.

“The structure, a makeshift tin-roofed building, was quickly consumed by flames due to the combustible materials used in its construction,” he said, adding that “thick clouds of smoke and intense heat severely impaired visibility and access”.

Mr Lolabi said the employees bravely entered the burning building, managing to salvage three precious cameras and disconnect critical networking cables, risking their lives in the process.

Firefighters from the Municipal Corporation and Rescue 1122 arrived swiftly, containing the fire before it could spread to an adjacent OB van, an uplink room and satellite dish and other structures.

Remarkably, regular TV transmissions were aired on time at 4pm.

“Unfortunately, with the destruction of the studio, we are currently unable to produce any indoor live or recorded programmes,” an official of the AJKTV said, adding that recordings will resume once the studio is repaired or rebuilt.

The AJKTV was inaugurated on February 5, 2004 with a mission to “spotlight the Kashmir liberation movement through social and cultural programming”.

The channel operated from a portion of the old Radio Muzaffarabad building in the heart of the AJK capital.

However, the devastating earthquake of October 2005 reduced the historic radio building to rubble, forcing AJKTV operations to halt. The centre was later relocated to prefabricated structures on an adjacent lawn, where production of programmes resumed in early 2007.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2024