Ahmadis criticise govt inaction over targeted killings
Ahmadis say their community is facing dire threat.
FAISALABAD:
Ahmadis are completely at the mercy of assassins who are targeting and killing them with impunity and police and other law-enforcement agencies were doing nothing to thwart their actions, the secretary of the Faisalabad chapter of the Jama’at Ahmadiyya said in a letter sent to foreign missions and top government functionaries.
Syed M Mahmood, the secretary of the organisation’s general affairs, said that he had “sent a letter (containing) forewarnings regarding the plight of the Ahmadiyya community in Faisalabad”, but no action was taken on it.
The letter was dispatched to the Human Rights Watch, the Asian Human Rights Commission, US embassy in Islamabad, the British High Commission and the embassies of France, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Islamabad.
He said that several victims, including Laeeq Ahmed, who was a member of the local chapter of the Jama’at Ahmadiyya, were brutally murdered in public, but police was trying to look the other way.
Citing the example of Laeeq Ahmed’s murder, he said: “It is shocking to know that neither the empties in the car were taken into the possession by the police nor the car was examined.”
According to him, another Ahmadi, Naseem Ahmad Butt became the victim of a targeted killing, but his killers were “roaming free” and asking about the whereabouts of his brother.
He reminded that “both the killings (occurred) in the constituency of the controversial Punjab law minister, Rana Sanaullah, who sides with the extremist groups”.
Expressing his frustration, he said: “We cannot continue to see our dear ones murdered with impunity. I have no option but to send this report also to world organisations on human rights, to different embassies, to show them the disintegration and complete collapse of law and order in Punjab. We (fear) that this (city) might become a second Karachi.”
This letter was also sent to the governor of Punjab, the provincial home secretary, additional secretary (home), IG police, additional IG, RPO Faisalabad, CPO Faisalabad, SSP (Operations) Faisalabad and DCO Faisalabad,
In another letter sent to foreign missions in Islamabad and law-enforcement authorities, the Ahmadiyya community also protested over what they termed forced rustication of three female students from the National Textile University (NTU) in Faisalabad because of their faith.
It was pointed out, “NTU Faisalabad has become the hub of…extremist and militant groups”.
“There has been a planned subversion of all the decent norms of an educational institution. The target has been the Ahmadiyya Community and the weaker Ahmadi female students”.
“So much so, that all the female students had to leave the NTU Faisalabad. Their educational careers were abandoned midway. Moulvis were imported (to the campus) who harangued the students against the Ahmadiyya Community in such an abusive language which defies definition”.
The letter pointed out, “The parents of the students have been approaching the rector of the NTU Faisalabad, but he showed his inability to control the situation”.
“Even the magazine of the NTU, Faisalabad, exhorts that all Ahmadis should be killed.
“This is not a textile university, this is the killing factory of the Taliban.”
“This university, hotbed of extremism, should have no affiliation with any other educational institutions in the world. Otherwise, the name of other decent educational institution will be sullied.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2011.
Ahmadis are completely at the mercy of assassins who are targeting and killing them with impunity and police and other law-enforcement agencies were doing nothing to thwart their actions, the secretary of the Faisalabad chapter of the Jama’at Ahmadiyya said in a letter sent to foreign missions and top government functionaries.
Syed M Mahmood, the secretary of the organisation’s general affairs, said that he had “sent a letter (containing) forewarnings regarding the plight of the Ahmadiyya community in Faisalabad”, but no action was taken on it.
The letter was dispatched to the Human Rights Watch, the Asian Human Rights Commission, US embassy in Islamabad, the British High Commission and the embassies of France, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Islamabad.
He said that several victims, including Laeeq Ahmed, who was a member of the local chapter of the Jama’at Ahmadiyya, were brutally murdered in public, but police was trying to look the other way.
Citing the example of Laeeq Ahmed’s murder, he said: “It is shocking to know that neither the empties in the car were taken into the possession by the police nor the car was examined.”
According to him, another Ahmadi, Naseem Ahmad Butt became the victim of a targeted killing, but his killers were “roaming free” and asking about the whereabouts of his brother.
He reminded that “both the killings (occurred) in the constituency of the controversial Punjab law minister, Rana Sanaullah, who sides with the extremist groups”.
Expressing his frustration, he said: “We cannot continue to see our dear ones murdered with impunity. I have no option but to send this report also to world organisations on human rights, to different embassies, to show them the disintegration and complete collapse of law and order in Punjab. We (fear) that this (city) might become a second Karachi.”
This letter was also sent to the governor of Punjab, the provincial home secretary, additional secretary (home), IG police, additional IG, RPO Faisalabad, CPO Faisalabad, SSP (Operations) Faisalabad and DCO Faisalabad,
In another letter sent to foreign missions in Islamabad and law-enforcement authorities, the Ahmadiyya community also protested over what they termed forced rustication of three female students from the National Textile University (NTU) in Faisalabad because of their faith.
It was pointed out, “NTU Faisalabad has become the hub of…extremist and militant groups”.
“There has been a planned subversion of all the decent norms of an educational institution. The target has been the Ahmadiyya Community and the weaker Ahmadi female students”.
“So much so, that all the female students had to leave the NTU Faisalabad. Their educational careers were abandoned midway. Moulvis were imported (to the campus) who harangued the students against the Ahmadiyya Community in such an abusive language which defies definition”.
The letter pointed out, “The parents of the students have been approaching the rector of the NTU Faisalabad, but he showed his inability to control the situation”.
“Even the magazine of the NTU, Faisalabad, exhorts that all Ahmadis should be killed.
“This is not a textile university, this is the killing factory of the Taliban.”
“This university, hotbed of extremism, should have no affiliation with any other educational institutions in the world. Otherwise, the name of other decent educational institution will be sullied.”
Published in The Express Tribune, September 10th, 2011.