PAKISTAN: An Ahmadi humanitarian activist is shot dead – the police show no interest in investigating the case

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the brutal killing of an Ahmadi humanitarian who had returned to Pakistan from an established job in the United States of American to offer his services free of charge to the needy and impoverished. Dr. Mehdi Ali was shot dead by unknown assailants before his wife and child after paying his respects at an Ahmadiyya cemetery. As is customary in violence against religious minorities in Pakistan the authorities have shown little interest.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Dr Mehdi Ali, a devout Ahmadiyya Muslim had a well-established practice in the USA as a cardiologist. He returned to Pakistan at this own expense to voluntarily offer his specialist services to the people of his country and to work at the Charity Heart Institute in Rabwah, Chnab Nagar, Punjab. He was accompanied by this wife and two children. On 26 May, 2014, he was shot dead by unknown persons riding a motorcycle while he was offering Fateha (prayer) at a graveyard. 

Dr. Mahdi had traveled to Pakistan as a volunteer to serve in rural area of Punjab and provide free healthcare to poverty-stricken people of all faiths.

Dr. Medhi was shot at point blank range and died instantly. He and his family had been visiting a cemetery in the town of Chenab Nagar when the attack occurred. He had just finished paying his respects at friends and family graves at the Ahmadiyya elder’s cemetery when he was killed while coming out of the gate. He was murdered for no other reason than his adherence to the Ahmadi faith. His humanitarian efforts to bring relief to the people of his country offered no security from his attackers who fled the scene. The police have shown little interest in investigating the incident or arresting the perpetrators. In one report they simply stated that, “We are looking into the incident. It seems to be a targeted attack”.

There is no doubt that it was, indeed, a targeted attack.

The national spokesperson of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the United States expressed regret and sorrow over the senseless killing. He went on to say that, “Dr Mehdi Ali’s crime was healing the ill and lessening the pain of the suffering. For this ‘horrible’ crime he paid with his life”. The victim leaves behind his wife, a toddler son, and 5-year-old son and another aged 17 years.

Dr. Medhi was an Assistant Professor of Cardiology at Ohio University. He was the younger brother of Imam Hadi Ali Chaudhary, a missionary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community serving at the Ahmadiyya Institute of Islamic Theology and Languages in Canada.

Dr. Medhi’s death comes less than two weeks after another Ahmadi was taken into custody on charges of having committed blasphemy and shot while in a police lockup in full view of the police 
officers.

Please see our earlier Urgent Appeal: PAKISTAN: An Ahmadi was shot dead in police lockup and the lives of others are under threat.

In the Urgent Appeal the AHRC has appealed to the governments of Pakistan and Punjab to provide security to the Ahmadis after the killing of an Ahmadi in a police lockup by a teenager in the presence of the police. It is also apprehended that more Ahmadis would be targeted if security is not provided to them.

During this month of May, 68 lawyers were booked on the charges of Blasphemy because they were protesting against the police officer for manhandling an arrested lawyer. Please see: PAKISTAN: In a mockery of the blasphemy law 68 lawyers were charged for challenging the authority of the police.

In the same month a human rights defender and prominent lawyer, Mr. Rashid Reman was gunned downed in his chamber for pleading the case of a university professor who was arrested on charges of blasphemy. Please see the Urgent Appeal: PAKISTAN: AHRC condemns the assassination of a prominent human rights defender and places the responsibility on the government of Punjab .

Last year 7 Ahmadis were killed in target killings by known Muslim religious organisations. Punjab province is worst hit by the attacks on Ahmadis and the local authorities including the government of Mian Shahbaz Sharif turns a blind eye to the killings in an effort to appease the sectarian organisations, their leaders and banned militant organisations to get political support from them.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The French news agency, AFP, reports that an expert panel urged the United States to add Pakistan to a blacklist of violators of religious freedom, saying that the Ahmadi minority suffers “apartheid-like” conditions. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which advises the government on policy but does not take action on its own, urged the State Department to add Pakistan to its list of “countries of particular concern” subject to potential sanctions.

In an annual report, the commission said that Pakistan “represents the worst situation in the world for religious freedom” among countries that are not already on the US blacklist and that conditions in the past year “hit an all-time low.” Robert George, chairman of the commission, voiced alarm over treatment of the Ahmadis, who were declared by Pakistan to be non-Muslims in 1974. “The Ahmadi minority in Pakistan live under something really resembling an apartheid-like system subject to severe legal restrictions,” said George, comparing the situation to South Africa’s 1948-1994 system of forced racial separation. Ahmadis have faced a series of deadly attacks and desecration of their graves. Ahmadis boycotted last year’s election because they would have had to identify themselves as non-Muslims.

The report also voiced alarm about Pakistan’s treatment of Hindus, Christians and Shia Muslims. It said Pakistan has sentenced to death or jailed for life 36 people for blasphemy, far more than any other country.

The United States has urged Pakistan to improve its treatment of religious minorities but has stopped short of putting the country, an uneasy ally in the Afghanistan war, on the blacklist.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write the letters to the authorities calling them to provide security to Ahmadiyya community without any lapse. The high police officers must be charged for the negligence for not providing security to a community which constantly remains under attack from fundamentalist Muslims. Ahmadis have all the constitutional rights of any citizen of Pakistan including the right to life. The Punjab government must initiate an enquiry into the target killings of Ahmadis.

The AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Religion or Belief and on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions calling for their intervention into this matter.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER