By Mirror Web -July 24, 2023
The push against the Ahmadi community, which has become a common occurrence in Punjab, not only reflects poorly on the country but also draws the wrath of UN agencies.
The most recent effort against the Ahmadi community entails demolishing the minarets of their houses of worship. This comes after a campaign last month to prevent Ahmadis from giving sacrifice on Eidul Azha.0In a town close to Jhelum called Sarai Alamgir, the TLP’s social media wing put up a billboard that said, “From Shaandar Chowk to the Qadiani Centre, all minarets will be demolished.”
The drive, according to the poster, would start at 10 am on July 29 at the TLP’s headquarters in Sarai Alamgir.
The TLP forced police to destroy the minarets of an Ahmadi house of worship in Jhelum on July 14. The local branch of the party then said that it will destroy the minarets of all Ahmadi houses of worship in the whole Jhelum region.Some of these locations date back more than a century.
The upcoming elections, according to Amir Mehmood, a spokesman for the Jamaat Ahmadiyya in Pakistan, are to blame for the current uptick in anti-Ahmadi sentiment.Political parties have been known to appeal to voters’ emotions by playing the religion card, according to Mr. Mehmood.The deputy commissioner of Jhelum, retired Captain Samiullah Farooq, has suggested gagged Saad Rizvi of TLP throughout Muharram and Safar in response to social media complaints to the Punjab government.The TLP head is the subject of two FIRs that the Jhelum police have filed due to his aggressive comments/
When a call was made to the phone number shown on the poster in an effort to reach a TLP spokesman, the individual who answered the call simply stated, “Wrong number.”
Prior to Eidul Azha, TLP began a similar campaign by filing as many as 23 complaints with the police to prevent Ahmadis from offering animal sacrifices.
In response to TLP pressure, police gave in and attempted to prevent community members from offering animals at 89 locations while also arresting 13 people in six incidents. Seven of them were detained in different neighborhoods.
According to a complaint by Jamaat Ahmadiyya, police raided the homes of five community members and seized 10 animals and sacrificial meat.
UN attention:
Concerned about how Ahmadis are treated in Pakistan, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has requested that the government respond to claims that international law has been broken.“We would like to draw your Excellency’s Government’s attention to the information we have received concerning growing discrimination and rising incidents of hate speech and incitement to violence against the Ahmadi religious minority in Pakistan, including attacks against places of worship and other acts of intimidation,” the OHCHR stated in its letter.
The letter was delivered to Switzerland’s Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN in Geneva. The OHCHR letter stated, “We are deeply concerned about this series of violent attacks against the Ahmadi minority. As we have previously addressed in several communications, despite our requests for authorities to take appropriate action, the safety of the Ahmadiyya minority has continued to deteriorate.
Categories: Ahmadis And Pakistan, Asia, Pakistan, United Nations