March 14, 2024
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
The Ahmadi community in District Kotli, AJK, is gripped by fresh fear after another incident of grave desecration. This is the second such attack – and in the same village of Barmoj Goi – in a matter of only a few days.
The first attack took place on the night of March 7, and eight graves belonging to the Ahmadi community were destroyed.
On March 12 again, extremists destroyed two more tombstones of Ahmadi graves in Patiara, Barmoj Goi.
One of these was the grave of Pakistan Army’s Naik Ghulam Shafi, who lost his life in the Siachen Glacier around 33 years ago. Shafi’s gravestone had a green crescent on the gravestone, which was defaced and the gravestone’s inscription was broken.
Area people say that the miscreants came in the middle of the night con March 12, and while the police have filed an FIR no arrests have been made as yet.
Hate Speech
Meanwhile, there have been reports about rising hate speech and intimidation perpetrated by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The community members told Voicepk that it was the TLP that was behind these attacks, especially since they have been ‘promising’ such attacks since some time now through videos posted on Facebook and also notices displayed in public.
Already in the last six months in Kotli, two Bait-ul-Zikars were attacked and vandalized and the inscriptions of three graveyards were broken. More graveyards are now facing threats.
“The entry of the Ahmadiyya community is being stopped by these elements in commercial centres, and in many places in K
otli there are banners being displayed with hate speech and warnings against the community,” says a local source on condition
of anonymity.
“These are organized attacks and it is a sorry situation that this continues to take place, while Ahmadis plead for safety,” said Amir Mehmood spokesperson for the Ahmadiya community. “Instead of being called a martyr for protecting his country, we see his grave being desecrated.
In a video on social media, a central leader of the TLP, Adnan Rizvi, who belongs to the same village, is openly making hateful comments against Ahmadis.
In the video he is threatening to kill them, and refers to them as Qadianis which is a derogatory term. He welcomes the fact that the attackers of an Ahmadi shrine have been bailed out. He says that while they have attacked their place of worship they will also kill them.
Adnan Rizvi was one of the many who were arrested from the sit in at Faizabad when Khadim Rizvi was alive.
Police
Meanwhile, the police has been given a second application by the family of Naik Ghulam Shafi, as the first did not mention that he should be recognized as a martyr.
SSP Kotli Abid Mir told Voicepk that they have arrested miscreants in the past, but the recent incidents have taken place in an area which is completely out of range of even geo-fencing, and on the line of control. “This makes it a challenging situation for us but investigations are underway,” he said. “One of the previous cases is currently in court while in another case the two parties had reconciled issues. Otherwise the police had also filed FIRs under the anti-terrorism act. Police took every legal action that they could.
Abid Mir said it was no allowed for anyone to use religion as a tool for their own motives.
“The Ahmadiya community and the ‘other group’ belong to the same ‘biradri’ and were even closely related, so till the actual matter did not surface nothing could be said with clarity about which was the accused party,” he said. “In any case, stern action will be taken for the guilty party. The geographical distance must also be kept in consideration regarding police action.”
People from the Ahmadi community have complained that despite the police knowing who is behind these crimes, there are no arrests made and criminals roam around freely in broad daylight carrying on with their activities.