Intolerance: ‘Violence against Ahmadis is at its peak today’

Annual report by Jamaat Ahmadiyya highlights growing discrimination and violence.

LAHORE:

The situation for Ahmadis deteriorated over the past year as seven Ahmadis were killed and 16 faced murder attacks, an annual report issued by the Jamaat Ahmadiyya on Wednesday stated.

The report was issued ahead of the fourth anniversary of attacks on two Ahmadi places of worship in Lahore. The attacks had left more than 90 persons dead and around 150 injured. According to the report, in 2013, there was in increase in fabricated news stories against Ahmadis published in the Urdu press.

The report said Ahmadis had faced political, social and legal discrimination since the promulgation of the ordinance against them in 1984. It said 237 Ahmadis had been killed since the ordinance had been passed, and 193 attempted murders had taken place. It said as many as 27 places of worship had been demolished, 31 had been sealed by the authorities and 16 others had been illegally appropriated.

As many as 37 bodies of Ahmadis had been exhumed after burial, and the burial of 61 bodies in common cemeteries had been denied.

The report also called attention to widely distributed literature that promoted the social and financial boycott of Ahmadis and incited violence against them.

The Jamaat Ahmadiyya spokesperson Saleemuddin said Ahmadis were prevented from offering Eid prayer in Chenab Nagar, where 95 per cent of the population was Ahmadi. He said Ahmadiyya publications such as Misbah and Al-Fazl, Pakistan’s oldest daily Urdu newspaper, had been banned by the government.

Saleemuddin said today violence against Ahmadis was at its peak. He said it was necessary to understand that the current situation originated from the time that the government began to interfere in religious matters and enacted discriminatory laws. He said it was time to eradicate all such legislation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2014.