Police, extremists demolish 80-yr-old Ahmadi worship place in Pakistan

Lahore, Jan 18 (PTI) Police and members of an Islamist party allegedly demolished an 80-year-old worship place of the minority Ahmadi community in Pakistan's Punjab province, an official said on Saturday.

The incident took place on Friday at Daska Kalan, Sialkot, some 100 km from Lahore.

According to Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JAP), the local administration completely demolished the Ahmadi place of worship under the pressure of religious extremists.

The worship place was built before the Partition by Sir Zafarullah Khan, a member of the Pakistan Movement and the first foreign minister of the independent nation.

"On Friday night, the authorities carried out this heinous crime and deprived Ahmadis of their fundamental right to practice their faith. It seems an orchestrated attack on the Ahmadi worship place was carried out," the JAP said.

Members of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) raised religious slogans on the demolition of the Ahmadi worship place, the JAP said, adding that last year, 22 worship places of the Ahmadi community were desecrated.

"These extrajudicial actions by the authorities are creating a bad name for Pakistan. By persecuting an already marginalised community, the authorities are sending a message that they care least about the vulnerable communities of Pakistan and that its members are not safe here," the JAP said.

It demanded the authorities refrain from extrajudicial actions, which take place in Pakistan despite superior courts' decisions to protect all the vulnerable communities in the country.

"It is the need of the hour that the state should hold these culprits accountable," said the JAP.

In September last year, Ahmadi cemeteries in various parts of Punjab were also desecrated, with police and TLP members blackening sacred inscriptions on gravestones by painting over them.

The Ahmadi community in Pakistan has often come under attack for their religious practice. Although they consider themselves Muslims, Pakistan’s Parliament in 1974 declared the community as non-Muslims. A decade later, they were not just banned from calling themselves Muslims but were also barred from practising aspects of Islam.

Religious extremists are ramping up their hateful campaigns against Ahmadis in Pakistan, leading to increasing harassment at workplaces, job dismissals, and public calls for boycotting Ahmadi shopkeepers. PTI MZ GRS GRS