Pakistan’s Islamic political party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has accused the police of allegedly desecrating the worship place of the Ahmadi community, The Express Tribune reported. A local TLP activist named Irfan Iliyas Butt on Friday night criticised the district administration’s police after complaining to Assistant Commissioner Wazirabad that the Ahmadi community had built the now desecrated building resembling a nearby mosque with minarets.
He has sought action under Sections 298-B and 298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Speaking to The Express Tribune, a representative of the Ahmadi community condemned the action, calling it “tantamount to discrimination against them as well as against the Supreme Court’s verdict.” It is important to remember that police also toppled minarets from an Ahmadi community place of worship in Gujranwala last month, The Express Tribune reported.
With mob attacks and killings becoming a regular affair against the Ahmadiyya community, Pakistan has become a country where the people of this community are subjected to extensive persecution including hate speech and violence with at least 13 killed and 40 wounded from the community since 2017, according to a media report. The Geneva Daily, an online publication that provides in-depth coverage of issues relating to human rights violations and child abuse, reported that the approximately 4 million-strong Pakistani community is subjected to extensive torture, religious persecution by self-declared Islamic leaders, and discrimination by institutions and the general public.
Pakistan’s Ahmadi Muslim community had faced consistent systematic discrimination, harassment and attacks since 1974 when then-Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto introduced a Constitutional Amendment which specifically targeted the community by declaring them non-Muslims. In 1984, General Zia-ul-Haq introduced the Ordinance, which further stripped the community of the right to identify themselves as Muslims and the freedom to practice their religion freely.