April 25, 2025
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
Only a week after an Ahmadi man was lynched in a market place in Karachi, another incident took place in Kasur, where an Ahmadi youth was shot dead. Muhammad Asif, 19, son of Rafiq Ahmed, lost his life on Thursday night, 24 April, after he was killed by unknown assailants on a motorbike while he was on his way home. Since January, religio-political party Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has been carrying out attacks on revered sites belonging to Ahmadis, including places of worship (ibadatgahs) and graveyards.
According to reports, both the victims were traveling on a motorcycle and were only about 100 meters from Asif’s home when unidentified armed individuals opened fire. Muhammad Asif was struck in the back near the shoulder, with the bullet exiting from the front. Asnan Ahmad sustained a gunshot wound to his leg. The assailants then fled the scene while firing shots in the air. Both victims were transported to the hospital by Rescue 1122, but Muhammad Asif succumbed to his injuries due to excessive blood loss. He was 19 years old and is survived by his parents and two sisters.
Although police have registered a case, no arrests have yet been confirmed.
Background
The attack occurred amid rising hostility and open incitement against the Ahmadiyya community in the region. In the past many weeks, extremists belonging to TLP have been publicly advocating violence against Ahmadis across Pakistan.
“Asif was the only son, and he was helping his father with labour work,” said a resident of Kasur, H* who belongs to the Ahmadi community. “TLP recognizes us easily, they keep a watch on us. This is also not the first incident of firing, we have seen two other incidents prior to this, only this time a life was lost.”
The community member said that TLP had been over the past few years harassing them and intimidating them regarding their bait-ul zikrs.
“They have made several demands of the local administration to have our places of worship sealed,” says H. “A year ago during the time for Asr prayers, some men came outside and fired around 70 rounds directly at our homes, scaring our families. The scars of those bullets are still there, on our gates, on our water tanks, our walls. Also, much of our community in Kasur, works in agriculture areas, and they have to use a common main road for transportation in and out of the fields. There they are often intercepted by these hardline elements, who threaten and intimidate them, including children. All this happens on a daily basis.”
A few months ago, another incident of firing took place in a similar manner. Some time ago, an Ahmadi was also badly beaten up.
In context of Thursday’s extrajudicial killing, the Ahmadiyya community has also issued a statement.
“Extremists have been harassing the Ahmadi community in various ways for the past two years in this area,” says the statement. “A campaign has been on-going against Ahmadi ibadatgahs, with a demand to have them sealed.”
The spokesperson of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan, Amir Mehmood, expressed concern over the increasing incidents of violence against Ahmadis and demanded from the higher authorities to provide protection to Ahmadis as per the law.
“Hatred is being continuously spread against us and fatwas are given openly to kill us,” he said. “For the past several months, religious extremists have been encircling Ahmadi places of worship, forcibly preventing Ahmadis from performing their religious duties and carrying out hate campaigns against Ahmadis, resulting in serious threats to our lives and properties.” The spokesperson has demanded from the authorities that the killers of Mohammad Asif and Laeeq Ahmed must be immediately arrested and punished according to the law.
H, from Kasur, says that security from the police is not the end solution.
“If we ask for security, that would be just a short term solution,” he says. “The real change will come if those responsible are arrested and punished according to the law. That would be real long term change.”
A lawyer from the Ahmadi community says, “Around 12 places of worship have been closed down in the past month.”
Many of our people have now stopped going for Friday prayers in fear of an attack, and they have to stay at home, but there are so many others who want to visit the ibadatgah, because it is an obligation for them. It is now becoming a constant feature for the TLP to harass Ahmadis each Friday. This is the way our children are growing, and for a very small child such things can be very pressuring.”
The lawyer says that while the government has helped a little with security measures and they have their own community volunteers who have an organized system to monitor things, it is becoming systematically worse.
“We reach out to authorities and give them all our reports too,” he says. “While the authorities don’t outrightly refuse help, what they do is, they delay the process, hoping we will tired of following up. Let it also be understood that in a small town, you can easily spot anyone from the community. In the case of Ahmadis in particular, it is also very easy to extract someone’s or an entire community’s home address from the data of an election commission list of candidates.”
Pattern of Attacks
The killing in Bhulair is the second targeted murder of an Ahmadi in the space of a week, following the lynching of Laeeq Ahmad Cheema in Karachi on 18 April. These attacks are part of a broader and unrelenting nationwide campaign of anti-Ahmadi persecution that has intensified since the start of 2025.
Since January 2025, the community has faced:
• The destruction of over 150 Ahmadi graves across multiple cities, including in Lahore, Gujranwala, and Faisalabad.
• The demolition of the historic Ahmadiyya place of worship in Daska, Sialkot, in January 2025. This site was built by Sir Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, Pakistan’s first Foreign Minister and President of the UN General Assembly.
• Systematic crackdowns on Ahmadi Friday prayers that escalated in Ramadan 2025, with incidents involving arrests, place of worship closures, and forced halting of congregational worship.
In all instances authorities either fail to act or are active participants in the violence. The attacks in 2025 build on decades of state-backed persecution. Each incident reinforces a system in which Ahmadi religious practice is criminalised, legal protections are withheld, and violence is carried out without consequence.