Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza was taken in ‘Preventive custody’ from his Academy in Jhelum, police said Tuesday, a day after reports of his arrest showed up.
According to Jhelum -Vice Commissioner Muhammad Mesam Abbas and District Police Ahmed Mohiyuddin, Mirza’s was detained in accordance with section 3 of the Public Order Regulation.
According to section 3 of the MPO, the authorities have the power to arrest and withhold suspects to prevent “any person from acting in any way that is harmful to public security” or to maintain public order.
Police clarified that this so -called arrest stands as “preventative detention” and no criminal charges have been charged against him.
According to the Punjab police, statements from Mirza in a particular viral video can cause sectarian violence, making his detention under MPO “inevitable”.
He will be detained for 30 days after orders from Jhelum -Vice Commissioner Syed Maysam Abbas, according to the District Police. Mirza’s “Islamic Academy” in Jhelum is also sealed, added police.
Express Pakinomist was able to contact some acquaintances of Mirza who declared that Mirza had agreed to go into custody if it meant to avoid violence.
Read: Religious Design Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza Arrested in Jhelum
Details of the case are scarce, but what we know is that on Sunday a group of religious characters Jhelum met Jhelum -Vice Commissioner and submitted a written complaint that required action against “controversial statements” Mirza made in the said video.
Mirza’s first driveway with the law was in May 2020, when he was indicted for accusations of making derogatory comments about other religious scholars. He was later released against bail.
By 2023, Mirza was involved in yet another controversy with a blasphemy charge was filed against him in April of that year.
Mirza has survived three assault attempts in 2019, 2021 and 2023. In 2023, a mattress student who was burned into Mirza’s Research Academy armed with a knife. Tehreek-E-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had also offered a bounty of RS500,000 on Mirza’s head.
