(Hong Kong, October 17) Following are excerpts from the press release of the Ahmadyya Jamat Report on the Persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, September 2013. The full report may be seen here.
In the month of September persecution against Ahmadis continued in Pakistan. In Orangi Town on September 18, Mr. Ijaz Ahmad Kiyani was shot dead by unknown assailants at 7:30 a.m. He had left home for work but had not gone far when two men coming from the opposite side on a motorcycle fired several shots at him. He was hit six times; one bullet caught him in his left hand; four hit him in the chest and one in the head. He is believed to have died instantly.
Mr. Kiyani was 27 and worked as a driver in an army establishment. He is survived by his parents, a wife, five-year old daughter and a two-year old son.
Spokesmen for Jamaat Ahmadiya, Mr. Saleemuddin, expressed his grief and anguish over this incident and said that despite such target-killings happening in Karachi for a long time the authorities have failed to put a stop to them. “Four Ahmadis have been killed in Karachi for their faith during the past month. We refuse to be intimidated by the killing of innocent Ahmadis because we have faith in Allah”, he said. He went on to say that, “…..our adversaries are wrong to assume that their barbarous activities would make any Ahmadi lose faith. The government should be mindful of its duty and should stop the proliferation of hate literature that incites the public to kill Ahmadis”. In the recent past conferences were held in the sacred name of Khatme Nabuwwat throughout the country in which hatred and violence against Ahmadis was preached and the audience were incited against Ahmadis through edicts of Wajibul Qatl (must be killed).
A fortnight earlier, another Ahmadi Malik Ejaz Ahmad, was target-killed in Karachi on September 4, 2013. Mr. Kiyani’s was the fourth such murder in four weeks.
In Gowalmandi on September 12, Dr. Qazi Munawwar was leaving his clinic for home when he was approached by a youth who threw acid on him before escaping. Dr. Munawwar’s clothes were burnt and he was injured. The nearby shop-keepers shifted him to the emergency ward in Meo Hospital. Fortunately his face escaped harm, and the injury was not grave. Dr. Munawwar is an active member of the Ahmadiyya community in Lahore.
The desecration of Ahmadiyya mosques by state authorities continues. According to the Constitution of PAKISTAN:
… It is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order … wherein shall be guaranteed fundamental rights, including equality of status, of opportunity and before law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association, subject to law and public mortality
Constitution of Pakistan, Preamble
The right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or faith includes the following:
- To worship or assemble in accordance with a religion and belief and to establish and maintain places for these purposes.
Article 6 of the United Nations Resolution 365/55 of 25 November, 1981
In Sialkot the police moved into shameless compliance mode in support of extremist Mullas, against the peaceful Ahmadiyya community in this city. The daily The Express Tribune published the following detailed report on this subject in its issue of September 23, 2013:
Ahmadi Persecution: Police bow to clerics to tear down minarets
Group demands further demolitions at Ahmadi places of worship
By Rana Tanveer — published September 22, 2013
Lahore: Police demolished minarets at an Ahmadi place of worship in Sialkot on Saturday, after a group of protesters threatened to do so themselves, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The police approached the community on Friday after a local cleric complained that three worship places for Ahmadis had features that resembled mosques, namely minarets and verses from the Quran written on the walls.
The minarets and verses were covered up, apparently to the police’s satisfaction, but a baying mob gathered at one worship place the next day and demanded that the minarets be torn down. The police did so. The group of protesters is now demanding that similar action be taken against two other worship places within a couple of days.
The cleric whose complaint led to the action told The Express Tribune that he had approached the police after he attended a Khatm-i-Nabuwwat Conference on September 7, marking the anniversary of the passage of anti-Ahmadi laws, where a speaker said that Ahmadis were not allowed to build minarets or use verses from the Quran at their places of worship.
Sections 298-B and 298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code outlaw Ahmadis from calling their place of worship a masjid, claiming to be Muslims or preaching their faith to others.
The police are employed and paid to enforce the law but instead acted blatantly to violate the law they are sworn to protect. Of course the officers enjoy full support of their departmental and political superiors at the highest level who were also guilty under the provisions of the following clause of the Pakistan Penal Code:
PPC-295. Injuring or defiling places of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class. Whoever destroys, damages or defiles any place of worship or any object held sacred by any class of persons with the intention of thereby insulting the religion or any class of persons or with the knowledge that any class of persons is likely to consider such destruction, damage or defilement as an insult to their religion, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
In Chak no. 43, also in the month of September some miscreants hurled abuse at Ms. Saadia Tabassum, a teacher in Sargodha, Punjab. The shouted slogans against her and stopped her from going to the school. She is a teacher in the local Government Elementary School and was falsely accused of preaching Ahmadiyyat to students. This agitation was immediately reported to the authorities who arrived at the scene and rescued her.
It is learnt that the miscreants wanted to have one of their relatives appointed in place of Ms. Tabassum. They co-opted the Mullas of the Khatme Nabuwwat faction and planned a procession. They were unable to succeed as some elders of the area intervened. The students and principal of the school refused to testify against her. The miscreants used the services of a peon of the school in their support.
Ms. Tabassum has been temporarily suspended from the school under the circumstances. She has been advised not to go to the school until the situation improves.
