Beleaguered community: Ahmadi man killed in broad daylight

Father of three stabbed multiple times by two assailants

LAHORE: A 35-year-old Ahmadi man was stabbed to death on Tuesday in broad daylight near Lahore.

Father-of-three Qamarul Zia was allegedly killed for his faith in Sheikhupura district’s Kot Abdul Malik by two assailants. The men attacked the deceased just as he was leaving his house to fetch his children from school. Mazhar Ali, the brother of the slain Ahmadi, said one of the men had stabbed Zia in the neck as he was mounting his motorcycle. Ali said a shopkeeper in the area had tried to rescue Zia only to be also injured by the assailants. He said they had stabbed Zia again in the belly and the neck after deterring the shopkeeper. Ali said they had fled from the spot after killing Zia.

The murder of the deceased marks the first killing of an Ahmadi in 2016. The Jamaat-i-Ahmadiyya (JA) and Zia’s kin said they saw killing through the prism of former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer’s self-confessed assassin Mumtaz Qadri’s hanging.

Zia was earlier attacked by some religious clerics in 2012. He had fled the area afterwards and only returned following the passage of a few months. Some members of the Majlis-i-Tahaffuz-i-Khatme Nabuwat had again attacked him six months ago. The deceased had filed an application regarding the attack to police.

Ali said one Waqas Ahmed, a resident of the same locality, was believed to be involved in the killing of his brother. He said he had fled from the area after locking his house. Ali said the shopkeeper who tried to rescue his brother had told him that he could easily identify the assailants if they were produced before him. He said police had also carried out a raid at Ahmed’s residence but had not been able to nab the absconding suspect.

The brother of the deceased said most of their neighbours had been hostile to the family for long. Ali said chief among them were Muhammad Rasheed, Munawar and Abdul Rehman who had started pestering them after they had stopped listening to what they had to say. He said they wanted the family to abandon Ahmadiyyat. Ali said the family had been grappling with a social boycott. He said all shopkeepers refused to sell them their wares, barbers refrained from cutting their hair and milkmen refused to deliver milk at their house. Ali said Zia had been receiving threats of dire consequences for a long time.

Police official Javed Ahmed told The Express Tribune that the slain Ahmadi had been stabbed multiple times. He said Zia’s body had been sent to a mortuary for autopsy. Ahmed said police had registered an FIR of the killing following a complaint by Ali. He said police had initiated a search to nab his absconding assassins.

Ahmed said Zia’s kin saw his killing as a communal incident. He said it was premature to comment in this regard yet. Ahmed said a religious angle could not be ruled out but it was binding on police to investigate the killing across all fronts. Ahmed said police suspected Waqas Ahmed of executing the attack but would only be able to establish what actually transpired after arresting him.

JA spokesperson Saleemuddin told The Express Tribune that the unrelenting anti-Ahmadiyya campaign had made the lives of Ahmadis hell. He said venom was spewed against them despite the introduction of the National Action Plan against Terrorism that proscribed hate speech. Saleemuddin said Zia’s killing demonstrated the failure of law enforcement agencies to protect the nation’s Ahmadi citizens. Had communal elements been reined in, the JA spokesperson said, Zia would not have been killed. He called on the government to hold his assassins accountable for their actions.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2016.