Newspaper staffer admits mistake
PESHAWAR- A probe into the publication of a blasphemous letter in a local English daily took a dramatic turn as the man in charge of the editorial page, now detained, confessed to the police that it was his mistake, which had triggered violent protests and cost the newspaper and its employees so heavily.
Munawar Mohsin, a Bengali by origin, one of the six detained The Frontier Post staffer, told an interrogation team that the letter, received through e-mail, had been selected by him and that he had failed to realize how sacrilegious it was. He thought the letter targeted the Jews, he added.
According to a member of the interrogation team, the accused had also admitted that he had not referred the letter to the editor, although he had selected it a couple of days before its publication. An extraordinary meeting of All Pakistan Newspaper Editors Council All Pakistan Newspaper Editors Council (APNEC), Peshawar, urged the government to restore the publication of The Frontier Post to save its employees from starvation, and to release those who were not responsible for the publication of the blasphemous letter.
It also demanded the unmasking of the Jew, Ben Dzac, the man who had e-mailed the letter to the newspaper.
Attended by a large number of journalists and press workers, the meeting also asked the administration not to harass all the employees of Jasarat. It further said that action could be taken only against those staffers who were responsible for the publication of the translated portion of the sacrilegious letter.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/4/2001
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