Tag: Ahmadi community

  • FIR registered against Ahmadis for sacrificing goats on Eid-ul-Azha

    FIR registered against Ahmadis for sacrificing goats on Eid-ul-Azha

    As Eid-ul-Azha approached, Muslims around the world including in Pakistan celebrated by enjoying public holidays, holding large social gatherings, giving meat to the needy but it has not been a festival for the minority Ahmadi community as right-wing religious activists, mostly from Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), targeted them on the Holy days.

    Social media is abuzz with videos showing TLP members, helped by local police, searching for meat among the homes of Ahmadis.

    In Gojra, an Ahmadi was booked for sacrificing a goat on Eid-ul-Azha on the complaint of a TLP activist.

    “The suspect has committed severe abuse by following the rituals of Islam while pretending to be a Muslim,” said the FIR.

    A spokesperson of Jamaat Ahmadiyya in Pakistan stated, “Shocking reports of police and extremists raiding Ahmadi homes, confiscating meat. What kind of Eid celebrations is this for Ahmadis in Pakistan?”

    A 2022 Supreme Court judgement by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah ruled that obstructing non-Muslims from practising their religion within the confines of their place of worship was against the Constitution.

    The 2022 written order stated, “to deprive a non-Muslim (minority) of our country from holding his religious beliefs, to obstruct him from professing and practicing his religion within the four walls of his place of worship is against the grain of our democratic Constitution and repugnant to the spirit and character of our Islamic Republic.”

  • Action taken against those who attacked Ahmaddiya place of worship

    Action taken against those who attacked Ahmaddiya place of worship

    Journalist Arshad Yousafzai took to X (formerly twitter) on Monday to share a video where a charged mob can be seen vandalizing The Ahmadiyya Hall, a place of worship for the Ahmaddiya community in Karachi. The mob was breaking the minarets of the building in Saddar, just a few streets away from Preedy Police Station. Around two hours after the post, Mayor Karachi, Murtaza Wahab announced that action has been taken and three people have been arrested.

    The constitution of Pakistan and Pakistan Penal Code ensures that all citizens have the right to practice their religion in peace. Interim Prime minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar also offered assurances after the Jaranwala incident that all minorities, including Ahmedis, will be protected by the state.

    X user Samrina Hashmi reminded everyone how targeting anyone’s place of worship goes against constitution and religion.

    Fahad Desmukh wrote how the same building was attacked a few months ago.

    ShaRzyeea talked about her childhood memories linked to this place, “So many of my childhood memories are in this place that is connection and safety.”

  • ‘Community is being persecuted’, Ahmadi spokesperson on arrest of three for performing Qurbani

    ‘Community is being persecuted’, Ahmadi spokesperson on arrest of three for performing Qurbani

    On Sunday, a first information report (FIR) was filed in Faisalabad against Ahmadi community members for “hurting Muslim sentiments”, reports Dawn. As per the FIR, the religious sentiments of Muslims were hurt by the members of Ahmadi community by performing animal sacrifice.

    Saleemuddin, a spokesperson for Jamaat-i-Ahmadiyya Pakistan, told Dawn that three people have been arrested as a result of the FIR. “The community is being persecuted,” he added.

    According to the FIR, the people who have filed the complaint were in a mosque following Eid-ul- Azha prayers where they learned from their sources that Ahmadi community members were slaughtering animals inside their home.

    They then “climbed the roofs of nearby houses, after which they saw that the Ahmadi community members were sacrificing a goat at one place while other members were cutting the meat of another animal at a different place”.

    “The Islamic sentiments of the complainants and other Muslims were hurt by this and [the complainants] recorded a video which can be presented as evidence,” the FIR added.

    “By performing a ritual in line with Islamic beliefs and presenting themselves as Muslims despite being Ahmadis, they have committed a cognisable offence, according to Muslim ummah’s belief, and this has grievously hurt Muslim sentiments,” the complainants stated.

    The FIR was registered at Faisalabad’s police station Thikriwala against five people under Section 298-C of the Pakistan penal code.

  • Ahmadi graveyard attacked during a woman’s burial

    Ahmadi graveyard attacked during a woman’s burial

    An Ahmadi graveyard in Sheikhupura was attacked by extremists who attempted to stop the burial of an Ahmadi woman.

    When the woman’s dead body was brought to the graveyard for burial, a mob attacked the graveyard and tried to stop the family from burying the woman there as the deceased was an Ahmadi. Despite this, the minority community’s members managed to finish the burial process.

    Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s Focal Person Azhar Mashwani wrote in a tweet that police and members of the administration reached the site as soon as the incident was reported.

    Mashwani also quoted the district administration as saying that two different areas have been demarcated for both communities’ graveyard as per an agreement between elders of both communities. He said that this “longstanding issue of graveyard is resolved”.

  • ‘Inconvenience is highly regretted’: IBA cancels Dr Atif Mian’s lecture on economy

    The Institute of Business Administration (IBA), one of the best business schools in Pakistan, has cancelled a talk by top economist Atif R Mian on Pakistan’s poor economic growth without any plausible cause.

    In a tweet, the IBA wrote: “Dr Atif R. Mian’s lecture “Why has economic growth fallen behind in Pakistan?” scheduled on November 5, 2020 has been cancelled. Inconvenience is highly regretted.” There was no further explanation by the school on why the lecture was cancelled. Dr Mian has yet to comment on the development.

    Observers say that the economist was disinvited from the lecture probably because of his affiliation with the minority Ahmadiyya community. However, this is not the first time Atif Mian, who teaches at ivy league Princeton, has faced discrimination due to his faith.

    He was appointed by Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Economic Advisory Council after the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). However, the post was short-lived after the government came under fire for appointing an Ahmadi to the economic body. It subsequently backtracked and sacked Atif Mian from the advisory council, much to the chagrin of progressive quarters.

    Dr Atif is John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Finance at Princeton University, and director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Woodrow Wilson School. He is the first and only person of Pakistani origins to have been named on the IMF’s list of ‘top 25 brightest young economists.’  

    The 39-year-old has dedicated his time to studying the connections between finance and the macro economy. An expert on international debt markets, his latest book, House of Debt, builds on data to describe how debt precipitated the ‘Great Recession’. He is often the go-to economist for the world media on the subject.

  • Elderly blasphemy accused shot dead in court

    Elderly blasphemy accused shot dead in court

    An elderly man was killed during the hearing of a blasphemy case against him at the Peshawar Judicial Complex on Wednesday.

    A case had been registered against the deceased under blasphemy laws. The accused was brought to court from Peshawar Central Jail.

    Tahir Ahmed Naseem, 47, a resident of Pishtakhara, appeared before the court of Judge Shaukatullah when a man barged in and opened fire on him.

    He was a US citizen and the US State Department’s Twitter account for South Asia tweeted about the incident.

    “During the hearing of the case, the complainant said that the accused was an Ahmadi and asked him to recite the Kalima-e-Tayyaba,” according to a lawyer who was present in the courtroom at the time of the incident. He added that the complainant then fired at the elderly man and killed him.

    The 24-year-old shooter, Khalid, was arrested by the police on the spot. He is said to be a resident of Board Bazaar.

    The judicial complex is situated in a high-security zone on the main Khyber Road in the cantonment area where the provincial assembly building, the Peshawar High Court, chief minister’s secretariat and Governor House are also situated. Security at the main gate and inside the judicial complex is also high.

    Peshawar Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Mohammad Ali Gandapur and SSP (Operations) Mansoor Aman visited the courtroom where the man was killed.

    “At the moment we have little information but we have started investigation into the killing,” the CCPO said. Aman added that the weapon has also been recovered.

    Police shifted the body of the deceased to the Khyber Medical University for post-mortem.

    They said a first information report (FIR) had been registered against the deceased in 2018.

    According to the FIR, the complainant alleged that the deceased belong to the Ahmadi community and “befriended him on Facebook” and in subsequent conversations, claimed that he was the “fourteenth Mujaddid”.

    “He then invited me to have a discussion with him at a mall in the city where he started talking about his belief,” the complainant said in the FIR, going on to make more allegations.

    The deceased was charged under Section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), Section 295-B (defiling etc. of the Holy Quran), Section 295-C (use of derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad PBUH) and Section 298 (uttering words etc., with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

  • ‘U-Turn’: Ahmadis excluded from National Commission for Minorities

    ‘U-Turn’: Ahmadis excluded from National Commission for Minorities

    In what netizens are calling “another U-Turn by the ruling party”, the federal government has reportedly withdrawn its decision of including Ahmadis to the National Commission for Minorities.

    According to reports, following recommendations from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the government on Tuesday withdrew its earlier decision to give representation to the Ahmadi community in the minorities commission.

    They said that the decision was reconsidered after the move sparked fierce criticism from the religious right on mainstream and social media.

    Meanwhile, the federal cabinet has approved the reconstitution of the commission.

    A Hindu community member from Sindh, Chela Ram Kewlani has been named as chairman of the commission while Maulana Syed Muhammad Abdul Khabir Azad and Mufti Gulzar Ahmed Naeemi will represent the Muslim community.

    Three members each have been selected from the Hindu and Christian communities, while two members have been named from the Sikh community and one member each will represent Kelash and Parsi communities in the commission. The chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) will be the commission’s ex-officio member while the religious affairs secretary will also act as the commission’s secretary.

    The federal cabinet on April 15 had decided in principle that the Ahmadi community, being a minority in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan, should also be represented in the commission.

    The Ahmadi community of Pakistan was to be included in the commission for the first time since 1974, when they were declared non-Muslim by the then Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government.

  • Islamabad bar moves to identify lawyers from Ahmadi community

    Islamabad bar moves to identify lawyers from Ahmadi community

    Members of Islamabad Bar Association have been directed to declare their faith on the finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) or face the suspension of their membership, in a move that is drawing strong reactions from both lawyers and the general public.

    According to The Express Tribune, the lawyers’ group has told its members to submit affidavits by the end of the ongoing month, failing which they would have their membership suspended and names posted on noticeboard.

    The notification in this regard comes in view of the decision taken by the General Body on December 6, 2019, while the report has quoted Association President Malik Zafar Khokhar as saying that “the purpose of seeking affidavits was not the suspension of non-Muslim lawyers from the association, but to identify the members of the Ahmadi community”.

    STRONG REACTIONS:

    Meanwhile, lawyers, as well as the general public, are strongly reacting to the notification.

    “Clearly Jinnah’s Pakistan remains a distant dream! His 11th August speech buried in heaps of paranoia, intolerance and bigotry,” tweeted Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, who is a member of the association.

    Here’s what others had to say:

    https://twitter.com/theRealYLH/status/1218447461397749761

    https://twitter.com/ShahidQuetta/status/1218287233603641345

    There has been no official reaction to the backlash.