June 17, 2024
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
Attacks on Ahmadis and their worship places increased over the last month especially across Punjab. The Ahmadi community inform that such attacks always increase whenever Eid approaches, or during Ramzan and Muharram. Seeing the increase in attacks a couple of days before Eid, the Federal Minister of Interior had issued a notification to all provincial IGs and Chief Secretaries including in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK and under special instructions that the members of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) may attack on Ahmadis on Eid, therefore they must hitch up security.
Despite this, in the early morning of July 17, (Eid Day) at around 2:15 am, a mob of TLP members stormed in at an Ahmadi place of worship in Kotli, where they fired upon it, crashed inside and caused large scale destruction.
“Sadly nothing has come to light about why this attack happened,” says Amir Mehmood, the spokesperson of the Ahmadi community. “If security had been provided to us seriously and properly then this attack may have been deterred.”
Mehmood told Voicepk that the mob of around 150 people attacked the Ahmadi place of worship in Kotli. They opened fire and destroyed the minarets and arches of the building,” he said. “At a time when most people were preparing for Eid, this charged mob was more concerned with violently attacking a community’s worship places.”
He also condemned how the local police of all districts were helping these elements.
“The police has been more concerned with whether Ahmadi families have bought any sacrificial animals, rather than fulfilling their duty of providing protection to Ahmadi citizens. Is this where their priorities lie?” he questioned.
According to Amir Mehmood, and other local members of the Ahmadiya community, many complaints have been filed against them in different police stations across Punjab since a few days.
DETENTIONS AND ARRESTS FOR CELEBRATING EID
Meanwhile on June 15, an Ahmadi man was arrested in Daska, District Sialkot for owning a sacrificial animal.
Qaiser Imran was detained while his goat was taken into police custody. It is suspected that here also TLP members had complained to the police that Imran was planning to sacrifice the goat for Qurbani.
“It is extremely regrettable that Ahmadis are being prevented from performing their religious rituals even within the four walls of their homes,” said Mehmood. “Time and again we have to remind that in a Supreme Court verdict, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah has clearly ruled that Ahmadis can pra
ctice their religion within their four walls. But the administration is only taking illegal actions to harass Ahmadis, causing them distress and fear instead of letting them celebrate Eid in peace.”
In the detention letter it said that Qaiser Imran’s activities were ‘prejudicial and a threat to public safety and the maintenance of public order’ “There is likelihood that he will create unrest in the general public and a law and order situation,” says the detention letter. As a result Imran has now been detained for a period of seven days under Section 3 MPO (1960).
The detention order were requested by the DPO Sialkot and approved by the the DC Sialkot, Muhammad Zulqarnain Langrial.
COMPLAINTS TO POLICE
Several complaints have been made to the police across Punjab. The following police stations have received complaints: Jhang Bazaar, Sargodha Road, Factory Area and Gulberg. Eight people have been arrested while the first three Ahmadi leaders who had been arrested in Chakwal and charged under MPO were released on Friday after they were made to promise there would be no civil unrest caused by them. However they did not give any written promises.
Meanwhile Bar Associations in Punjab have also been active in launching an anti-Ahmadi campaign. The Lahore High Court Bar Association released a notification to all Regional Police Officers (RPOs) saying that Qurbani and Eid prayers were important obligations which belonged to Muslims only, and since Ahmadis were specified to be a ‘non-Muslim minority’ since 1974, they were restrained from performing any such rituals.
It said that Ahmadis stole ‘the identity of Muslims and demanded rights of Muslims’ and that appropriate action must be taken against them if they are found involved in these rituals. This letter has been send to all RPOs of Punjab. The District Bar Association Faisalabad and Gujrat have also issued similar letters addressed to RPOs of the province.