By Christine Khamis

Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –

Police are investigating a fire at a Christian TV station in Karachi, a city in southern Pakistan. Police initially thought that the fire at Gawahi TV, a cable television station, had started due to an electrical short-circuit. However, the owner, Pastor Sarfraz Williams, believes that the fire was deliberately set.

Gawahi TV employed both Christians and Muslims and broadcasted gospel programming. The channel was preparing to release its Christmas programs before the fire occurred.

Mr. Williams made an official complaint to police following the fire, and a forensic investigation is underway. Mr. Williams has stated that the TV station had been getting threatening phone calls and messages.

Mr. Williams’ brother, Javed Williams, stated that the locks on the station’s doors appeared to have been cut open. Most of Gawahi’s materials, including religious books, were destroyed. The channel’s security system was destroyed during the fire, and security footage has not been found. Computers were either destroyed or missing entirely. The computers that were left to burn in the fire were missing their hard drives. Additionally, the cameras that the TV station had used were missing as well.

Mr. Williams also made a blasphemy complaint against those behind the fire, who are currently unidentified. It is remarkable that he made the blasphemy complaint, as such complaints are usually used in cases against Christians. The blasphemy law is implicated because the attack on Gawahi TV involved the burning of religious books.

Human rights groups have criticized the use of the blasphemy law in Pakistan because they believe that the complaint is misused by those seeking to settle personal feuds and those seeking to facilitate “land-grabbing”.

Karachi, which is Pakistan’s largest city, has a substantial Catholic population. Gawahi TV was located in the Akhtar Colony area, which is populated by several religious communities. The population’s makeup in the area is around 90% Muslim and 10% minorities.

There have recently been several other attacks against religious minorities in Pakistan. Churches were bombed in Lahore in March, leading to the deaths of over a dozen people. Last week, a mosque owned by the Ahmadis, a Muslim sect that Pakistan’s Sunni Muslim majority thinks unfavorably of, was attacked after a factory worker was accused of burning pages of the Quran.

Although Pakistan’s government has pledged to protect religious minorities, such attacks have continued. Some critics have questioned the government’s commitment to protecting religious minority groups.

 

For more information, please see:

Business Standard – Owner of Christian Channel Lodges Blasphemy Complaint in Pak – 28 November 2015

NBC News – Pakistan’s Gawahi Christian TV Station Gutted in Fire – 27 November 2015

The Express Tribune – Christian TV Channel Office Burnt to Ashes in Karachi – 26 November 2015

The New York Times – Pakistani Police Investigate Fire at Christian TV station – 26 November 2015