JHELUM: A man was arrested on Sunday after he reportedly attacked cleric Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza, the police said.

Per a first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn, the incident took place in Jhelum at Mirza’s Qur’an-o-Sunnat Research Academy at the end of a lecture.

According to the complainant Muhammad Kashif Qureshi, a core member of the academy, attendees were returning home after listening to the lecture, but some of them stayed back to take selfies with Engineer Mirza.

“Just then, a man attacked Engineer Mirza by grabbing his collar, throwing punches at him, and removing his turban,” the FIR quoted Qureshi as saying.

“He violently threw his honourable turban onto the ground, strangled him with both hands to suffocate him, and loudly chanted slogans,” he added.

Qureshi was quoted as saying that people present at the site of the incident intervened immediately to protect the scholar.

“We then handed him over to the police on duty to ensure that legal action is taken against the criminal,” he said in his complaint.

District Police Officer (DPO) Jhelum Tariq Aziz Sindhu, while talking to Dawn, said that the police have arrested the alleged attacker and the FIR was filed against him under section 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

“Further investigations about the background of the attacker are underway,” DPO Sindhu added.

The DPO said that a four-tier security of police had been deployed at Mirza’s academy, adding that the police had repeatedly warned him to avoid taking selfies with the strangers entering as audience at his sessions.

The officer added that the scholar had previously been attacked too and was taken into the police’s protective custody last year under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) by Jhelum’s deputy commissioner after an activist of the banned Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) accused him of blasphemy and registered a case against him. He was later released on bail.

Section 3 of the MPO ordinance gives authorities the power to arrest and detain suspected persons to prevent “any person from acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety” or to maintain public order.

Mirza, a resident of Machine Mohallah of Jhelum city, frequently uploads his lectures and speeches on his social media accounts and has amassed 3.1 million followers on his YouTube channel.

In 2024, he was among 17 clerics whose speeches were banned by then-Jhelum DC during Muharram to prevent any potential sectarian violence.

The popular cleric survived an assassination attempt at a religious academy in March 2021. The suspect was taken into custody, and a case of attempted murder was registered against him.

The cleric had also been booked and arrested by the Jhelum police in May 2020 for derogatory remarks against some religious figures. However, he was later released on bail.