In yet another instance of persecution against the marginalised community, police in Gujrat razed the minarets of an Ahmadi worship place, which is stated to be 70 years old.
Since the start of this year, as many as five worship places of the persecuted religious community have come under attack. In one such incident, police in Wazirabad destroyed the minarets of a worship place.
According to the details, the operation against the worship place was conducted by officials from the Counter Terrorism Department, and Gujrat police officials.
A representative from the Ahmadi press section said the community members tried to stop officials from razing the minarets, stating that the worship place was 70 years old. However, the officials threatened the members with a First Information Report (FIR) in case of non-compliance.
Declared non-Muslims in Pakistan, the Ahmadis face social and legal discrimination with growing incidents of attacks on their worship places, as well as desecration of their graves reported this year.
Earlier, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) found that civil administrations in Gujranwala and Wazirabad were directly involved in the attacks targeting the Ahmadi community’s worship places in these cities.
An HRCP-led fact-finding mission pointed out that there is evidence suggesting the civil administration in Gujranwala and Wazirabad were directly involved in destroying the minarets of Ahmadi worship places in December 2022 and January 2023.
The administration claimed they had done so to circumvent the threat of mob violence as objections were raised by members of a local political-religious outfit against the Ahmadi worship places.
However, the report stated, the way local administration handled the issue “fostered growing hostility towards the Ahmadiyya community and increased the vulnerability of Ahmadi residents in the area”.
“While the mission understands that the local bureaucracy, police, and judiciary were successfully intimidated by a religious group, their response displays a pitiful inability to manage law and order while respecting the fundamental rights of the Ahmadiyya community,” the report added.
The HRCP also raised concerns over the district administration’s perception that this kind of persecution is be backed up by law and the Constitution.
The mission also “underscored an alarming uptick in the persecution of members of the Ahmadiyya community in Gujranwala and surrounding areas—specifically, the desecration of their graves, the destruction of minarets at Ahmadi sites of worship and first information reports (FIRs) filed against community members for carrying out ritual animal sacrifice on Eid”.
