May 13, 2025
By Xari Jalil
LAHORE
Fear clung to the two elderly men in the video, their cuffed and chained hands a stark testament to their helplessness. Around them, a crowd of men in black coats, the typical attire of Pakistan’s legal profession, roared slogans about the finality of Prophethood.
One of the men, dressed in a plain shalwar kameez keeps his head bowed, the weight of the moment crushing him. The other, sporting a neatly trimmed French beard, turns away from the intrusive phone camera, his refined air a poignant contrast to his disheveled state.
‘We are happy that the court has refused to admit the Qadianis’ appeal,’ an unseen voice announced. But the relief of the unseen crowd would soon give way to tragedy. For the man in the blue shirt and trousers, those were his final days, with his death while in judicial custody.
Case Background
According to details, Dr Tahir Mahmood, a homeopathic doctor, a resident of Malir’s Khokrapar Colony, and the President of the local chapter of the Ahmadi community, was arrested along with one other individual for performing Friday prayers. A case was registered against him on March 10, in an FIR. The Ahmadi community has strongly condemned Dr Tahir’s custodial death, saying that he was ‘unjustly arrested and imprisoned in Malir, for his peaceful act of offering Friday prayers’.
Prior to the registration of the case, on February 14, 2025, miscreant elements of Tehreek-e-Labbaik held a protest sit-in in front of the Ahmadiyya Bait-uz-Zikr in Malir, known as “Bait-un-Nasr”, and demanded the sealing of the place of worship. Following this, the police, upon the demand of the opponents, sealed the Bait-uz-Zikr and registered a case against these office bearers on February 18, 2025.
After the registration of the case, pre-arrest bail was granted. On March 10, 2025, upon the non-confirmation of bail, Tahir Mahmood Sahib and Ijaz Hussain Sahib were arrested from the court premises, while Mukarram Ayaz Hussain Sahib could not be arrested due to his absence. An appeal had been filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the decision to reject the bail.
Bail rejected
On March 12, 2025, the City Court of Karachi rejected bail applications for Tahir Mahmood and two other Ahmadi office bearers — Ijaz Hussain and Ayaz Hussain based on charges under Pakistan Penal Code Sections 295 and 298.
On the day of the hearing, the courtroom and its premises suddenly swarmed by lawyers, clerics, and supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a violent and extremist religio-political group that actively attacks the Ahmadi community.
“We were inside the court and all of a sudden from the seven TLP activists present in the room, a swarm of at least a hundred joined them; they began shouting out slogans and pressuring everyone there,” said Irfan*, an eyewitness. “They verbally abused and physically attacked the accused Ahmadis, especially Dr Tahir Mahmood, as he was also someone who was into social welfare which angered TLP. Those in the group were the exact same people who appear everywhere whenever there is a situation concerning Ahmadis. The same people were present at the scene where Laeeq Ahmad was lynched last month,” revealed Irfan. “Because of their pressure and impending violence, the presiding judge allegedly reassured the extremists that bail would be denied “as per expectations.”
Irfan claimed that one of the lawyers at the forefront was Manzoor Ahmad Rajput, well known in Karachi for ‘land-grabbing’, while the TLP group often got tip offs by an appointed person from the Sunni Tehreek (ST) who kept tabs on court proceedings and alerted them whenever such a case was being heard. After that, it did not take much time to collect people to pressure the judge.
Once the court rejected the bail applications, the mob surrounded the accused Tahir Mahmood and Ijaz Hussain, who were violently dragged from
the courtroom, physically assaulted, and beat up so badly that the police had to intervene to break it up.
“They did not care about whether the men were old or not, they just ruthlessly began beating them,” said Irfan. “The police usually never dares to stop the crowd, even they are under pressure, but this time they had to stop them saying that the men would die. After they had beat them up, they collected and started filming them and proudly posting these on social media.”
The IHRC calls the charges against the two men baseless and false, adding that Sections 295 and 298 are specifically weaponized against Ahmadis. “The complainant in the case, Shoaib Khan, is a known official of TLP, which regularly orchestrates hate campaigns and violence against Ahmadis with impunity.”
ABOVE: Manzoor Rajput seen above in the mob outside the court
“He had been unwell for the past two to three days due to a kidney infection. He was taken to the hospital on May 11, 2025, but could not survive,” he said. Mehmood said that the deceased is survived by his wife, a married daughter, and three sons.
The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) has demanded that there be a full independent inquiry into the custodial death of Tahir Mahmood and the prosecution of all those involved in his arrest, torture, and abuse — including TLP-affiliated lawyers and complicit police officers.
They have also demanded international sanctions on TLP and its leadership, immediately designating it as a terrorist organization. They demand immediate medical and legal protections for all Ahmadis currently imprisoned under blasphemy or anti-Ahmadi laws, and the repeal of discriminatory constitutional and penal code provisions (especially PPC 295, 298) targeting the Ahmadiyya community.
Graves demolished
According to details, when som
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Ahmadis visited the graveyard on Saturday, May 10, they found that the tombstones of all the Ahmadi graves were broken. They also recalled that the police had been pressuring the Ahmadis for some time to demolish these tombstones themselves, because of Islamic inscriptions. However, the Ahmadis had informed the administration that they would not do so. Following this, such an incident took place.
An application for action has been submitted to the police in this regard. It is important to note that in the same graveyard, on the night of April 1st and 2nd, 2025, unknown individuals smeared cement to the tombstones to erase the Islamic writings on them. So far in this year, the desecration of 269 Ahmadi graves have occurred in 11 different incidents in Pakistan. Whereas in the previous year 2024, around 319 Ahmadi graves were reported to have been desecrated in 21 different incidents.