June 12, 2024
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
After a long span of months, since September 2023, an incident has occurred where local police has been involved in the destruction of a minaret in an Ahmadi place of worship. While Ahmadis’ places of worship or ibadat gahs have been under attack regularly since January, in this incident the direct involvement of the police is noted.
The local Ahmadi community reveals that this act was carried out by around 10 to 12 policemen – in uniform – along with four unknown persons in civil clothes at around 1 pm on June 12. The incident took place at Jahman, a village off Bedian Road, Lahore.
Only two days ago, the Heyr police station (Lahore) had indicated that they were going to demolish the minarets of the Ahmadiyya place of worship in Jahman – was built in 1970.
Then on the night of June 11, a local Ahmadi told Voicepk that the area DSP and SHO in two separate vehicles along with police officers, arrived at the Jahman Dera late night, and began forcing the Ahmadis to pull down the minaret and mehrab. However after an hour long discussion they went back.
D*, a representative of the Ahmadi community of the area spoke to Voicepk.
“The issue had been brewing since three or four days – some people belonging to the TLP had given in an application to the police to destroy our minarets and the police had called us at the Heyr Police Station in their presence,” said D. “At first we td them to give us a separate time as we would not have been able to converse in their presence. But then the police told us to come directly to the Jahman village dera to discuss the issue. I along with others went there and we had a long discussion with the police explaining to them that they could not destroy the minaret as it was older than 1984 and that a court order protected Ahmadi structures built before 1984. The police however told us there was little a court order could do if a mob suddenly collected.”
D says the police tried to convince them to collaborate with them and knock off the minaret ourselves instead of allowing the TLP elements doing it. But they refused.
“We told them they could do it if they liked since they were state representatives but we would never do it ourselves as it was our place of worship and we would never allow anyone else to do it either,” says D.
According to D, the police including the SHO Heyr PS as well as the DSP of the area – and the kept trying to convince them two nights in a row. Finally an Ahmadi delegation of three went to visit the SP Cantt where they said they received support from him.
“When we explained to him that the ibadat gah did not bother anyone and only our community houses surrounded it, and that it had been there for decades, the SP said there was no reason why it should not be allowed to remain as it was. The DSP even asked us for a copy of the court order as we exited the office later,” said D. “But the very same night, they removed the minarets.”
D says at first they turned off all the lights so it was pitch dark, then took off the CCTV cameras. The whole operation took 25 minutes. They left the broken minarets on the ground.
When asked if there had ever been any trouble in the village before, D said that the ‘complainants’ had not even been from the village.
“Actually they are not of the village they are from outside. They just use someone within the village and collect on that basis,” he said.
LEGALLY SPEAKING
The destruction of minarets from Ahmadi ibadat gahs is not just a violation of basic human rights of minorities, it is also a clear violation of the verdict of Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh’s decision (Para 16) of the Lahore High Court (LHC) that protects the minarets of Ahmadiyya places of worships constructed before 1984. The Jahman place of worship is 54 years old.
It is also against the spirit of the Tassaduq Hussain Jilani judgment who in his 2014 suo moto notice called on the police to protect the places of worship of every religion.
Meanwhile it should be noted that 2023 served as the worst year where at least 43 Ahmadi worship places were desecrated, but after the meeting of the apex committee in September 2023 these incidents had stopped.
JOINT ACTION COMMITTEE
Meanwhile the Joint Action Committee Lahore has taken note of many of the incidents where minorities are being attacked in Pakistan especially in Punjab. On June 12, a letter was released to the Chief Minister Punjab from JAC which described the dire situation.
Using the Sargodha incident as a basis to remind the government of minorities rights, the JAC in an urgently requested the immediate attention of CM Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif, on the worsening situation with regard to attacks on minorities and the apparent lack of enforcement of the writ of the law.
Representing around 35 organizations, JAC stated that in the past few days, the Christian community in particular had faced intimidation and threats issued by individuals and groups following the gruesome killing of Nazir Masih in a mob violence. The local Meesaq Centre of Sargodha police was approached for immediate action against the people issuing threats but police failed to respond promptly.
The appeal further stated that the unrest persisted as the family of Nazir Masih and the Christian community there, comprising 150 to 200 families, were unable to resume normal lives in the localities of Gillwala and Mujahid Colony, Sargodha.
A comparison can be drawn between the tactics of the TLP with regard to the religious minority communities and that of the Ahmadi community. The letter states that the TLP openly issues threats of violence and holds gatherings in violation of Section 144 of the Cr.P.C. It also demands the release of the accused who have been arrested in the case of mob violence.
To counter the sympathies arising from various quarters towards the Sargodha Christian community, the TLP leaders also addressed a protest march in Sargodha, justifying the killing of Nazir/Lazar Masih. They threatened the administration that they would confront law enforcement agencies as they have in the past.
“The case of Ahmadiya community is worse than all the other minority communities. State is also party against them besides social and religious extremists targeting them. JAC raises voice for them,” said Irfan Mufti, JAC convener.
A more direct letter was written by the National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) to the Prime Minister which explained the various threatening situations the Ahmadi community along with other religious minorities have had to face.
However till now there has been no response by the government.