Voicepk.net > IN FOCUS > Features > Ahmadi lynch victim was a key witness in court case against TLP elements

In an exclusive the Karachi police told Voicepk that the Ahmadi man who was lynched on Friday, April 18, was a key witness in an ongoing case against elements of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) who were accused of demolishing and attacking the Ahmadiyya Hall.

April 19, 2025

By Xari Jalil

LAHORE

In an exclusive the Karachi police told Voicepk that the Ahmadi man who was lynched on Friday, April 18, was a key witness in an ongoing case against elements of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) who were accused of demolishing and attacking the Ahmadiyya Hall.

“Laeeq Cheema was an eyewitness to an incident back in 2023, where TLP activists had scaled the walls of this Ahmadiyya Hall, and had tried to demolish the minarets of the building,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) South Zone, Syed Asad Raza said while speaking to Voicepk. “The matter is still under litigation even now. On Friday, when the TLP activists saw him a little distance away from where their main demonstration outside the worship place, they recognized him and attacked him.

The police has managed to identify at least six people, from a mob of around 20 with the help of CCTV footage.

Raza said that since some time TLP activists had been trying to make the police take action against the use of minarets in the Ahmadiyya Hall, but they had been refused as the building was British-built and came under heritage, and for such action to be taken a proper procedure needed to be followed.

But in 2023, the elements attacked the building themselves. The main complaint was that the minaret was an ‘Islamic structure’ and therefore could not be used by the Ahmadiyya community.

Raza added that around six people have been identified after being seen in the CCTV footage of the incident, in Karachi’s Mobile Market in Saddar area.

The police has been trying to coax the family into taking legal action against the mob, and the six culprits, by registering an FIR, however they have been immensely fearful of any repercussions. In the meantime there are raids across the city in order to nab the suspects.

Sources say that all of the culprits belonged to Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), out of which one was an elected UC chairman from Kharadar, and three of them were the ones nominated in 2023, in a vandalism case, where the minarets of the same Ahmadiyya Hall had been demolished.

SHRC notification demands safety for Ahmadis

On Friday night, the Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC) issued a notification where it directed the Inspector General of Police to immediately initiate a ‘thorough, impartial, and expeditious investigation’.

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The SHRC notified that a detailed report, outlining the progress of the investigation, including measures taken to address any challenges, must be submitted to the SHRC within 15 days.

It also pressed that immediate steps must be taken to ensure the safety and security of the Ahmadiyya community and their worship places.

‘Additional police personnel should be deployed as needed to maintain law and order, and effective liaison mechanisms with community representatives must be established to de-escalate tensions and prevent further incidents in the light of above referred Judgment of Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan,’ said the notification.

SHRC is a statutory body established under the Sindh Protection of Human Rights Act, 2011 with a mandate to promote and protect Human Rights in the Sindh Province. The Government of Sindh has constituted the SHRC under Section 3 (1) of the Act on 09th of May 2013.

Under Section 4 (i) of the Sindh Protection of Human Rights Act 2011 (2022 Amendment), the Commission is empowered to take suo moto action on any human rights violations. It is also empowered to take suo moto notice on the issues pertaining to the protection of vulnerable groups/communities in Sindh province.

The killing of the Ahmadi man, Laeeq Cheema took place after Friday prayers, in a location of mobile market, within the jurisdiction of Saddar Police Station, District South Karachi.

The Commission said that the entire incident was a clear violation of Articles 9 and 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan, and therefore also Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The victim was reportedly killed for (professing his) faith, a right guaranteed under the Constitution. There are consistent reports of religious persecution against members of the Ahmadiyya community, said the Commission.

It may further be noted that the Commission, under its suo motu powers, has taken cognizance of similar incidents in the past. Notably, the Commission referred the recent case of vandalism at an Ahmadiyya place of worship in Surjani Town, Karachi (dated 10th March, 2025), as well as the killing of a member of the Ahmadiyya community in Mirpurkhas (vide letter dated 14th December, 2024).

In both cases, the Commission strongly urged the Government to take pre-emptive and protective measures for safeguarding minority communities, in line with the judgment of the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan dated 19th June, 2014, in Suo Motu Case No. 1 of 20147.

In context of the recent incident, especially because Pakistan is under international obligations under ICCPR, the SHRC (U/S 4(ii) Sindh Protection of Human Rights Act, 2011) recommends following in the interest protection of vulnerable groups.

Expanding on the tragedy that took place on Friday, Asad Raza told Voicepk that the investigation had already begun. He said that the incident of violence had happened at a completely separate place from the Ahmadiyya Hall.

“The tragedy took place a few hundred meters away from the Ahmadiyya Hall,” he said. “The police were focused on what was happening in that location, and were trying to rescue those from the community who were stuck inside the building. A van had been called and they were being transported away from the Ahmadi ibadatgah. It was much later when we received a call from the Karachi Civil Hospital, informing us of ‘someone who had died in the tussle in Mobile Market’. It was much later, after the police visited the hospital that we actually found the details – including his identity.”

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He said, that it was tragic that not one person from the public had tried to stop the mob from killing the man.

“They just stood there and watched it unfold,” he said. In the video, one can see the brutally beaten man curled up on the road, bleeding heavily from his head, blood spattered around him. In the background, the sound of the usual Friday sermon echoes in the loudspeakers. A throng of men stand around him.

‘Off the radar’

Meanwhile, Raza also told Voicepk that ever since the incident took place, TLP members had gone completely underground and off the radar.

“Now their phones have been switched off, and they seem to have disappeared into thin air,” he said. In the meantime, the police have apprehended male family members of the accused who appeared in the video, awaiting the surrender of the accused.

But what is glaringly obvious is the silence of the government – both provincial and federal. This silence has been standing out since a long time now. There have been dozens of attacks on Ahmadi individuals, their places of worship, their graveyards, not to mention having been threatened. But from the government’s side, no solid step has been taken to give them protection for their lives. As a result hardline elements especially the TLP have gotten away with these intimidation tactics. Voicepk spoke to Barrister Yasser Latif Hamdani on the subject.

Maybe it is because they are scared, but it may also be that the government is using this discrimination as leverage to their benefit, says Hamdani, who is also the author of ‘Jinnah, A Life’.

“We all know what happened regarding the Mubarak Sani case last year – the decisions the parliament took, how Justice Qazi Faez Isa was pressured to change his original verdict, etc. The political parties are all complicit.”

Discrimination against the Ahmadi community is popular, and political parties in power find themselves benefitting from garnering votes, if they take up this narrative. In fact of late, there have even been messages from the government’s side which seem to echo the words of the hardline TLP.

“I myself have seen sign boards and banners set up by the government, carrying intimidating messages over the finality of prophethood and that too in an urban center like Lahore.” says Hamdani. There have also been similar messages disseminated via text message by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The anti-Ahmadiyya movement was not always so lethal. But Hamdani says that research points to this trend since after 2017, when it came under discussion that Ahmadis should be allowed to vote. Mainly this issue came to light because Pakistan is not a signatory of the ICCPR and therefore they had to do something. But as a result the Faizabad dharna took place.

“At one point, like back in 1953, when the Zafarullah Khan case happened, the government was strong enough to counter these anti-Ahmadiyya forces,” says Hamdani. “But the movement actually turned genocidal after 2017, and we saw there was military support for the TLP,” he reminds how money was distributed among the TLP miscreants of the dharna. “Then under the PTI regime, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui came up with a verdict that said that not only must Ahmadis be discerned by their names – he wanted ‘Qadiani’ added to all their names on their CNICs – but they should be recognized by their attire too.”

For a brief period right after the new military chief came to power, the attacks even ceased, he says, and therefore we know that when the establishment wants to stop supporting TLP, they can.

Section 298-C

The Ahmadi community has faced the brunt of Section 298-C PPC, which came about through the 1974 constitutional amendment which has made it easier for extremist groups in the Muslim majority to carry out hate crimes and also get away with them.

Section 298-C is also referred to as the ‘anti-Ahmadi laws’, and it prohibits them from associating with Islam, making practicing or preaching Islam by them a crime, and resulting in three years of imprisonment along with a fine. In the past attempts to revise these legal provisions were met with intense opposition from radical factions, effectively preventing any modifications. The influence wielded by these radical groups hindered the impartial application of justice, leading to the unjust imprisonment and, in some instances, execution of innocent individuals.

Previous incidents of discrimination against the Ahmadi community in Karachi point to an incident in Surjani area, where the complainant, a member of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) said that when he “came to know that Qadianis have built a place of worship in Surjani Town, and to verify this, I kept watch for a month. On Friday, March 7, I reached the aforementioned house and saw that there was movement of people, which felt like they were gathering for the Islamic rituals of Friday prayers.”

The complainant adds that he called the police helpline as well as the local TLP wing, after which others from the neighborhood and the TLP officials arrived. The police also arrived.

“Inside the said house, there were approximately 35/40 people present in the Islamic rituals of Friday gathering, who were violating the law,” said the complainant in the FIR. “My claim is against these individuals for building a place of worship for Qadianis among the Muslim majority, misleading people into becoming Qadiani, calling themselves Muslims, and conducting worship,” he concluded prompting legal action to be taken. The FIR was filed under Section 298-C, one of the most misused of laws.

Aurat March statement

Condemning the incident, Aurat March (Karachi) has issued a statement. They demand immediate and impartial investigation into the murder of Laeeq Cheema, with transparent disclosure of progress and accountability, the arrest and prosecution of all those involved in this killing and in prior acts of violence targeting members of the Ahmadiyya community; and a full implementation of the Supreme Court judgment by Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jillani, dated 19 June 2014 (SMC 1 of 2014), which calls for concrete measures to protect religious minorities in Pakistan.

“This is yet another act in the growing pattern of violence targeting the Ahmadiyya community across Pakistan. This is not an isolated incident. Just in the past year, we have seen the desecration of a worship site in Surjani Town (March 2025), the killing of a man in Mirpurkhas (December 2024), the destruction of graves in Daska, and attacks in Chakwal and Bahawalpur. These incidents reveal a systematic campaign of persecution—enabled by impunity, silence, and complicity.

As a feminist movement committed to justice, we stand with all persecuted communities whose right to safety and dignity is denied. No person—regardless of belief—should have to live in fear, be vilified, or face violence for their identity.”

Laeeq Cheema was a father of seven. A member of the Ahmadi community in Karachi, informed Voicepk that the bereaved family had already left for Rabwah, Punjab, for the burial.

Meanwhile the Ahmadiyya community took offense at the way their members were taken away in a prison van, rather than being rescued from the scene with dignity.

“We were taken in a van, as if we were the criminals,” says N*, a community member based in Karachi. He was also disapproving of how they have been facing attacks since January this year, but no one from the government has taken any step to cool things down.

“Things have happened in the recent past too, but the Sindh government has taken notice too little too late,” says the community member N*. “These threats and intimidatory tactics have been happening since before Ramzan, but no one said or did anything at that time. Now it wont make much difference anyway.”

source https://voicepk.net/2025/04/ahmadi-man-witness-in-case-against-tlp/