February 12th, 2021 

By Staff Reporter 

LAHORE 

A teenage madrassa student has been arrested after shooting dead a homeopathic doctor from the minority Ahmadi community in his clinic in Bazid Khel locality of Peshawar, the fourth member of the minority community slain in targeted attacks in the city since July last year.

Abdul Qadir was fatally wounded when the assailant identified as Ihsanullah, a madrassa student of Bara in Khyber district, shot him twice as he came out to answer the bell of the clinic on Thursday, February 11. Qadir was rushed to hospital but later succumbed to his injuries. According to the first investigation report (FIR) lodged with Inqilab Police Station, the gunman was overpowered by residents and handed over to police along with a pistol used in the attack.

JIT formed to investigate the killing

A police official told Voicepk.net that the authorities have set up a joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate the killing. The police official said investigations were underway to determine whether the assailant acted alone or was facilitated by others.

According to a statement from the Ahmadiyya community, 65-year-old Abdul Qadir leaves behind a bereaved wife, five daughters, and four sons. A recent surge in attacks on Ahmadi community members in Pakistan in general and Peshawar, in particular, has resulted in a murderous torrent of killing, the statement said, adding that the authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the evident and open persecution of the community members.

5 community members slain in 2020 attacks

In November last year, Amir Mahmood, in-charge of the Jamaat Ahmadiyya’s media cell, told Voicepk.net that the attacks on the Ahmadi community members and their properties had spiked after the killing of Tahir Naseem, an alleged blasphemy accused, inside a Peshawar court in July, adding that five members of the community, including two in Punjab, have been killed in the country last year.

On November 20, 2020, Tahir Ahmed, a 31-year-old doctor was shot dead by a teenager in Nankana district in Punjab. Meraj Ahmed, an Ahmadi businessman, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in August, while an Ahmadi professor at a local college in Peshawar was shot dead by a colleague in October last year after an altercation. Mehboob Ahmed, an 82-year-old Ahmadi man, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Peshawar on November 8, 2020.

Ulema Council condemnation

The government and Pakistan Ulema Council condemns the killing of (Qadiyani) Pakistani doctor in Peshawar, Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Religious Harmony said in his tweet on Friday. “Action will be taken to ensure the protection of lives, properties, and honor of Pakistanis and non-Muslim Pakistanis,” he tweeted. He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has been directed to investigate the killing on the instruction of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In a statement on November 26 last year, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) urged Pakistani authorities to urgently and impartially investigate a surge in violent attacks on members of the Ahmadiyya minority community. “The authorities should take appropriate legal action against those responsible for threats and violence against Ahmadis,” the international rights organizations said.

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