UCA news: Pakistan’s minority Ahmadiyya Muslims are calling on authorities to curb hate speech against the persecuted community following a recent drive-by shooting in Karachi.
The attack comes after a Christian man in another part of the country was arrested under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws — another example, activists say, of persecution against religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim nation.
On Oct. 12, an Ahmadi man and his two nephews were shot in the southern port city of Karachi as they returned home from a local mosque.
Police said all three men survived the shooting, though two of them were admitted to hospital with bullet wounds and one survived only after undergoing three hours of surgery.
A spokesman for Ahmadiyya Pakistan, which represents the country’s Ahmadiyya community, strongly condemned the shooting and called on authorities to apprehend those involved.
“Literature based on hatred against Ahmadiyya Muslims is being published and distributed continuously. It has become a great danger to the lives of Ahmadis,” Saleem ud Din, the spokesman, said on Oct. 13.
He said Pakistani authorities have promised to crack down on hate speech as part of a national plan to combat extremism.
Instead, he said, Muslim clerics have been free to hold conferences in which hate speeches are delivered — with the full knowledge of authorities.
Categories: Accepting Islam, Ahmadis And Pakistan, Ahmadiyyat: True Islam