September 27, 2024
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
In order to appease the demands of religious extremists, the police in Vehari have allegedly erased holy scripts off the tomb stones of about 13 Ahmadi graves and smeared black paint on them, say community representatives, adding that this kind of illegal action by a law enforcement department itself was condemnable.
The incident took place in the limits of the Gago Mandi police station, where the local chapter of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had been pressuring the police since some time for this.
“These hardliners have been active in the village since some time, and they have been pressuring the police to either remove the Ahmadi grave stones or they would do it themselves,” said a member of the Ahmadiyya community. “The community representatives went to the police station in the form of a delegation and tried to submit an application, but the SHO refused to take the application and threatened them instead, saying that the inscriptions on the gravestones must be removed or there would be trouble.”
According to the details given by eyewitnesses, the police came under pressure and first visited the graveyard to take photos of the Ahmadi graves, where the inscriptions included holy script.
Then, on the day of the incident, there was a message circulated on Whatsapp in various groups that if the local administration did not do as TLP had been saying, they would resort to doing it themselves.
Later in the afternoon, three police officers along with one other person came to the graveyard and began to erase the inscriptions on 13 of the graves, afterwards smearing black paint on them.
“It should be noted that this is a joint cemetery, but the graves of Ahmadis are separate,” explained Amir Mehmood, the community spokesperson. “There are a total of 45 graves belonging to the Ahmadi community in this particular cemetery, and 13 of them had inscriptions on them.”
Mehmood said that the police have taken illegal action on the illegal and immoral demands of the extremists.
“They had no legal authority to do this,” he said.
This is the second such incident to take place during September.
Between September 19 and 20 some unknown individuals broke three gravestones belonging to Ahmadis from the cemetery of Goi Batali (Sanyara), in the Kotli district of Azad Kashmir.
According to details, there are eight Ahmadi graves of in the cemetery, out of which four had inscriptions. The inscriptions of three of them have been removed. The police visited the graveyard and registered a case against unknown persons.
The locals said that TLP was also pressuring the administration over other Ahmadi graves with inscriptions in the Goi Sharqi graveyard, also situated in Kotli.
Earlier, the extremists had given three days for the administration and said that if they did not break down the tombstones, then they would collect people and take action themselves.
Earlier this year, in March 2024 in Goi (Bermoj) Kotli, unknown persons broke the tombstones of 8 Ahmadis and took these broken tombstones with them. The persons also broke the tombstones of 2 Ahmadis and took them away.
The Ahmadi community has demanded that the government take immediate action.