Attacks on worship places of the minority Ahmadiyya community are continuing with impunity across Punjab despite court orders, a community spokesperson said.
According to the spokesperson, miscreants attacked and desecrated an Ahmadi place of worship in Kalsiyan area in Sheikhupura district on Tuesday (Sept 28) during the night.
“Although the worship place was built before 1984, the minarets were allegedly destroyed by the police themselves,” he said.
Sources in the Ahmadiyya community said a pattern was being followed in Punjab where the police portray that they are overpowered by threats from the religious extremists.
“The police first approach community members to break down their worship places themselves or there would be havoc by the miscreants. But upon the community’s refusal to do so, the police allegedly carry out the vandalism themselves,” the sources added.
In a separate incident, an Ahmadiyya place of worship in 55/2L Okara district faced the same fate as unknown miscreants desecrated it by partially destroying its arch. Once again the attack was carried out in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The Ahmadiyya community’s spokesperson, Amir Mehmood, asserts that authorities are flagrantly violating the decisions of the Superior Courts, despite having been presented with the rulings of both the Supreme Court and Lahore High Court (LHC).
The LHC on August 31 unequivocally ruled that Ahmadiyya places of worship built before this ordinance are legally protected, and any alterations or demolitions are prohibited.
In yet another incident, an Ahmadi police officer – Superintendent of Police in Mandi Bahauddin – was given life threats by the local religious clerics associated with the hardline Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) on Wednesday.
In a video being circulated on social media, a man named Naeem Chattha Qadri is seen inciting violence against an Ahmadi SP appointed in the city of Mandi Bahauddin.
While speaking to a crowd in a religious gathering, Chatha said: “I am giving the message to the agencies who are here to listen to me that if that SP is needed then it is better to get him posted somewhere else, otherwise he cannot be here in our presence. Either he will be here or we will be here.”
Referring to the murder of the Governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, Chattha spewed hate against the SP.
“A ghazi will be born again and when that happens it will leave you wondering what happened… you will say earlier they killed a governor now an SP, ” said Chattha.
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