LAHORE, Sept 18: Police investigation into a campaign against a local plastic footwear business house on blasphemy charges found it to be the result of company’s refusal to bribe an alleged gang of blackmailers.

Opposing the misuse of law, religious leaders of Majlis-i-Ulema Pakistan, together with Badshahi Mosque Khateeb Maulana Abdul Khabeer, held a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Thursday.

Maulana Khabeer and Maulana Saeedur Rehman said they had examined the footwear and found out that its design did not resemble the name of Allah Almighty as alleged.

In response to queries, the two religious leaders agreed that a blasphemy complaint should be thoroughly investigated before registration of a formal case.

“We are Muslims, and we can never ever think of doing anything against Islam or Prophet Mohammad (Peace be Upon Him),” owners Munir Ahmad and Azeem Ahmad of Chawla Plastic Footwear told Dawn.

They said the issue surfaced when photocopied images of a pair of slippers made by their unit were distributed in a plastic footwear market at Bhatti Gate a few days ago. It was claimed in the photocopied matter that design of the slipper resembled the name of Allah. “It called for boycotting all products of the footwear company and alleged that it was a case of blasphemy.”

Nobody initially owned the photocopies. However, a complainant, Shabbir Hussain, later on approached the police and lodged a formal complaint, though he too did not own distribution of the photocopies. He claimed in the complaint that the image on the slipper appeared to resemble the name of God.

“Our policy was to register the complaint first and later on investigate it, because it was a sensitive matter and public emotions were running high,” police superintendent Rao Karim said.

However, the officer said, a thorough probe was carried out and some samples of the footwear taken to different religious scholars for opinion. “None of the scholars agreed with the suggestion that the design on the footwear was an image of the name of Allah.”

The police investigation found out that a so-called social worker-cum-quack Saleem Subhani was the main character behind the campaign. He had planned the blackmailing campaign together with two fake reporters, Allah Yar Janjua, who would introduce himself as a correspondent of daily “Choice” and Tariq Mahmood of daily “Jury”. The president of Punjab Union of Journalists neither had any record of the two reporters nor of the newspapers they claimed to belong to. The owners of footwear unit told the police investigators that members of the gang had been contacting them for weeks. They would blackmail them on the pretext that the footwear design constituted blasphemy and they would launch a campaign through their publications and by using other ways if they were not given their “share”. They said that after making hefty demands, the gang members finally conveyed to the company that Zakat money of the footwear unit be issued every year in the name of an organization run by the so-called social worker. “We did not agree to the bribe demands, and the gang did what they had threatened to do.”

The police took both the owners into custody, but the latter secured bail from a court, as evidence collected during the investigation favoured them.

“We are seeking legal opinion on what to do next, especially with the gang members, who made a false claim, “ the police officer said, adding that all gang members had disappeared after things started going against them. “We are making efforts to apprehend them.”

A spokesman for the Plastic Footwear Manufacturing Association, Malik Sarwar, provided to this reporter attested copies of written opinions of the representatives of nine religious schools of thought about the footwear design and the blasphemy charges related to it. All the written statements say the slipper design is no blasphemy and such attempts would never serve Islam. “Instead, any such act without prior investigation would hurt religious sentiments of the Muslims.”

Mr Sarwar said the blackmailers had claimed that they were acting on behalf of business rivals of the footwear unit.

Further investigation into the case is under way while the footwear manufacturers want registration of a case against the gang members for blackmailing and damaging their business and credibility. “We want to get them arrested at the earliest.”