99 Ahmadis persecuted in 2010: Report

The community was not allowed to construct a single place of worship in 2010.

LAHORE:

The Jamaat Ahmadiyya (JA) has claimed that 99 Ahmadis were persecuted during 2010 on the basis of religion.

A detailed annual report issued by the Jamaat Ahmadiyya here on Thursday, said the killings of Ahmadis on the basis of religion was increasing and since 1984 the number of killings has reached to 202.

The report said that during the previous year, 67 cases were lodged targeting the community. It added that because of discriminatory laws in Pakistan, 234 Ahmadis were attacked, but they fortunately survived. Meanwhile, some worship places of the community were razed, while 28 others were sealed by the government during last year, the report asserted.

The report added that 15 of their worship places were illegally taken over and 29 bodies of community members were exhumed, while 51 others were not allowed to get buried in combined graveyards. Construction of not a single place of worship was allowed in the country and the police forcefully stopped construction of some places of worship in different areas of the country.

The report added that Ahmadis were not allowed to organise a single demonstration even in Rabwa, an area that has a 95 per cent Ahmadiyya population. At the same time, the report claimed that other people were allowed to hold protest demonstrations in Rabwa where derogatory language and hate speeches were used against their community.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2011.