Ferozewala attack: Khatme Nabuwat men get ‘FIR insurance’

Ahmedis fear dacoity case will be used to hinder action against attackers.

LAHORE:

Local leaders of the Anjuman Khatme Nabuwat in Ferozewala have filed a dacoity complaint with the police against unnamed assailants, some 10 days after the group was accused of involvement in an attack on an Ahmedi man.

Members of the Ahmedi community in Ferozewala, who have long complained of oppression, fear that the group had the FIR registered to use as a bargaining chip should the police decide to charge any Khatme Nabuwat people with shooting Chaudhry Basheer Ahmed on September 7, allegedly for his religious beliefs. September 7 is Tahaffuz Khatme Nabuwat Day, celebrating the 1974 signing into law of an act declaring Ahmedis to be non-Muslims.

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Chaudhry Basheer was shot in the neck and twice in the abdomen near the local Khatme Nabuwat chapter by a bearded man in his late teens to early twenties, according to witnesses. A case was later registered by Ferozewala police against three unidentified men. The complainant, Ahmed’s nephew Zahid Anwar, had said in his application that the attackers were from the Khatme Nabuwat and they had attempted to murder his uncle for his religious beliefs. Ahmed is still in hospital in critical condition.

Naseer Ahmed, an Ahmedi and a relative of Chaudhry Basheer, said that there had been no dacoities in the area and he believed that the TAKN had made up the story to get the FIR registered. “They did it so they could harass us. Now it will be very difficult to ask the police to take action against them, even though I am sure they were behind the attack,” he said.

He said other prominent members of the Ahmedi community had received death threats. He said his father Riaz Bhatti had managed to leave Pakistan three days ago and the whole family was trying to find a way out of the country, or at least Ferozewala.

“The TAKN is very strong here,” he said. “They have renamed the chowk where Chaudhry Basheer was attacked and are calling it Khatme Nabuwat Chowk. The bazaar is being called Khatme Nabuwat Bazaar.”

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Humayun Akhtar, younger brother of Tajdar Anjuman Khatme Nabuwat (TAKN) Ferozewala president Afzal Tahir, was the complainant in the dacoity case.

He said he did not believe that Chaudhry Basheer would get justice. An Ahmadi man had been murdered here a year ago, he said, and the police had not taken any action.

Sources in the police said that Tahir, Qari Muhammad Ahmed Faridi and two other prominent TAKN members contacted the police and asked them not to allow TAKN people to be named as accused in the FIR. They said that PML-Nawaz MPA Ashraf Rasool, who is also a member of TAKN, had also approached the station house officer on this matter.

Investigation officer ASI Ishrat told The Express Tribune that relatives of the complainant in the dacoity FIR had earlier approached the police asking that their people not be implicated in the attack on Chaudhry Basheer. He said several TAKN members had fled the area, probably fearing arrest.

He said he could not comment on the authenticity of the dacoity FIR. Asked if it was possible that it was registered as ‘insurance’ against the potential threat of being named in the FIR of the attack on Chaudhry Basheer, he said, “Maybe.” Anwar said that Afzal Tahir had called him on the day his uncle was shot and told him that the TAKN was not involved. He said he did not believe him.

Afzal Tahir, talking to The Express Tribune, denied that the group had anything to do with the attack on Ahmed. He admitted that he had contacted the police after the attack, but only because TAKN had been accused in a murder of an Ahmedi in Ferozewala two years ago. He said the dacoity FIR had been registered because there had been a robbery at their house and for no other reason.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th,  2011.