A Pakistan Television (PTV) journalist Saturday said he was innocent following “death threats” from extremist students for interviewing former Lal Masjid head cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi after he had surrendered, in what the students deemed an “insulting way”. Anwarul Hassan, a PTV talk-show anchorman, received the threats on Friday when madrassa students took over Lal Masjid again following a cleanup operation by the armed forces on July 10. Anwar said he was told to interview a burqa-clad Aziz, the attire he had attempted to escape in. “It was not my decision to interview him in the burqa. I am an employee and I did what I was told,” he said. “We will avenge Maulana Aziz’s humiliation at the hands of Hassan, who interviewed him in an insulting way,” the students announced on the mosque’s loudspeaker before police stormed in. “I hope sanity will prevail and I will not be harmed, because I am a professional and do not believe in insulting people,” Anwar said. He also denied that he was a Shiite Muslim, an impression the students seem to have. “I am a Sunni, please understand that,” he said.