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.”
