Motive for murder: Ahmadi man killed ‘because of his faith’

Investigation officer says it was likely due to a personal enmity.

LAHORE:

A member of the Jamaat-i-Ahmadia was shot dead in Green Town, allegedly because of his faith.

Four armed teenagers entered Jawad Karim’s house on Monday and shot him dead. They then walked away from the scene, said Imtiaz Adnan, Karim’s brother and a witness to the incident.



Adnan told The Express Tribune that four people armed with pistols had entered their house. One chased Karim to the first storey of the house and shot him in the chest. Adnan said he heard his brother cry out and reached the spot. He said he saw the assailant fleeing. He also saw three of his accomplices standing downstairs. They all simply walked away after killing Karim, said Adnan.

He alleged that Karim, 32, had been killed because of his religion. Local clerics had created a hostile environment for them, he said. Karim had also received several death threats, he said.

Green Town Station House Officer Sheikh Hammad told The Express Tribune that there may have been several motives for Karim’s murder. He said they had registered an FIR against unidentified suspects and started an investigation. He said Karim’s family had gone to Rabwa (Chenab Nagar) to bury him. Therefore they could not help the police trace the killers, he said. A formal investigation would be initiated once they returned, said Hammad.



The SHO said there could be several motives behind the murder, but he did not believe religion was one of them. If Karim was killed for being an Ahmadi, the killers would also have shot Adnan as he was there at the scene when Karim was shot, he said.

If the killers were religious extremists, they would have targetted Karim in a public area to create terror-not his house, said the SHO. Hammad suggested that the murder was likely motivated by a personal enmity, even though the family had said that Karim had no known enemies.

Karim is survived by his parents, a wife and two children. He ran a small clinic, Hussain Clinic, in the area. His wife, a doctor, looked after the clinic.

Jamaat-i-Ahmadia Pakistan spokesperson Saleemudin said Karim had been targetted because of his faith. He condemned the incident and said it had occurred as part of an on-going campaign against Ahmadis in Lahore. False FIRs were registered against Ahmadis, he said, and they were being targetted mercilessly. He said that the government had failed to protect the minorities and controlling the hate-campaign against Ahmadis.

Saleemudin said fatwas were regularly issued against Ahmadis in public meetings. Banners and stickers that incited hatred against Ahmadis were openly distributed and displayed. He appealed to the government to protect their lives and liberty.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2013.