Amnesty International has called upon the Punjab government to conduct through, independent, impartial, transparent and elective investigations into past incidents of violence, harassment and discrimination against Ahmadis during Eid celebrations. Already animals bought by Ahmadis have been taken into custody, and violence has been threatened to those who will even attempt to celebrate Eid.

13 Min Read

May 26, 2026

By Xari Jalil

LAHORE

Despite the Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog, bringing to attention the violence against Ahmadis especially before Eid, the threats have not died down, in fact crackdowns on sacrificial animals belonging to Ahmadis are being taken into custody, letters are being sent to provincial police officers to reign in any activity by the Ahmadi community, and death threats are being floated openly on social media. 

A letter by Amnesty was in particular addressed to the Chief Minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, mainly to bring her attention to the sharp increase in the incidents of violence and harassment against the Ahmadi community in Punjab, especially as Eid-ul-Azha draws near. This is because since some time, documentation and data have consistently shown that violence, both in volume and intensity, increases every year during and around all religious holidays including both the Eids as well as Muharram, and in particular in Punjab, although Sindh is quick to follow. 

Unlawful restrictions

Amnesty International informed that earlier in 2026 during Eid uI-Fitr, it had received reports that local administrative and police authorities across districts in Punjab placed unlawful restrictions on Ahmadi religious practices. The reports indicated that Ahmadi congregations were explicitly prohibited in Gujranwala and police intervened at six locations in Sialkot to stop all worship activities on Eid day, 21 March 2026. On the same day, worshippers were reportedly removed from a place of worship during prayers in Faisalabad and multiple places of worship were sealed in Sargodha.

In its recent letter, Amnesty expressed grave concerns regarding structural and persistent discrimination, harassment and violence against the Ahmadiyya community in Punjab. It has urged the government to take immediate and preventive measures to ensure that the rights to freedom of religion and belief, peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and equality before the law of Ahmadis were upheld across Punjab.

The letter noted that the incidents reflect a recurring pattern that amounts to unlawful interference with the right to freedom of religion and belief. In 2024, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern about “harassment and intimidation of Ahmadi Muslims in the period preceding and during Eid-uI-Azha. 

That year, Amnesty documented 36 cases of arbitrary arrests and detention as well as dozens of cases of police harassment of Ahmadis in the lead up to and during Eid uI-Azha. In 2025, similar practices prevailed as local authorities in Punjab prevented Ahmadis from celebrating Eid, including forcing individuals to sign affidavits undertaking that they would refrain from prayers and performing rituals on Eid day.

On ground situation in 2026

Meanwhile, only in the past week, a video popped up on social media where a member of a banned group was seen threatening Ahmadis if they so much as thought of celebrating Eid ul Azha. He was heard clearly stating on video, ““I shall hang the Ahmadis who perform sacrifice on Eid.”

The lawyer fraternity has also begun to harass the community in various places across not just Punjab but Sindh as well. In Kambar Shahdadkot, the District Bar Association wrote a letter to the IG Sindh, with a request for “strict enforcement of Sections 298 B and 298 C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and prevention of unlawful sectarian/religious activities in the district. 

“It has come to the serious notice of the legal fraternity that certain elements are actively engaged in unlawful religious activities within District Kambar Shahdadkot. These activities—which include holding unauthorized public gatherings, delivering provocative speeches, and the deliberate misuse of exclusive Islamic epithets, titles, and symbols—are being conducted in blatant violation of established constitutional mandates and statutory prohibitions. If left unchecked, these actions possess a severe potential to disrupt public tranquility, breach communal harmony, and precipitate a volatile law-and-order situation.”

Likewise in Tando Adam Khan, another video full of hate speech and threats against the community surfaced on social media. 

“Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has begun to carry out these threats now in Sindh,” said a member of the Ahmadi community on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “TLP has submitted applications to Deputy Commissioner Kemari and SSP Kemari in Karachi to prevent the Ahmadis from offering Eid prayers and performing sacrifices during Eid-ul-Azha.” the same has been happening in Moro, in District Naushero Feroze, etc.

Across Sindh and Punjab both, sacrificial animals bought by the Ahmadis have been taken into police custody under the watchful eye of the hardliners. 

Despite a ban on TLP, after a massive crackdown held in Punjab on the hardline religious group, lawyers backed by TLP are still continuing to threaten the Ahmadis through legal power. The District Bar Association Chiniot have sent a letter to the Punjab police demanding that the Ahmadis be strictly prohibited from offering Eid prayers, sermons and sacrifices on Eid Ul Azha.

A dark past

It is observed that the incidents in the days preceding Eid mostly always occur in the backdrop of systemic discrimination and violence against the community. Attacks on burial sites of the Ahmadiyya community are frequent. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief observed in her 2026 report that hundreds of Ahmadi graves were desecrated in Punjab and Ahmadi funeral rites were also regularly interrupted by police. 

In 2025, at least three Ahmadis were killed in targeted attacks, while five survived assassination attempts Notably, two of the three killings occurred in Punjab, underscoring the heightened risks faced by Ahmadis in your province. Members of the community, including doctors, lawyers, teachers and public officials, are frequently subject to smear campaigns, blasphemy accusations, and calls for violence or removal from their professional designations, leading to a climate of fear that excludes them from daily life. 

Ahmadis are facing significant administrative barriers to the registration of marriages since 2024, including refusal by local authorities to issue marriage and divorce certificates or accept certificates issued by the communists designated authority, which was treated as valid legal documentation till the abrupt policy change in 2024. Since the second amendment to the Constitution in 1974, the marriage registration of the Ahmadiyya community has existed in a liminal space as they were no longer regulated by Muslim Personal Law. 

In the absence of rules and regulations governing Ahmadi marriages,the community is at the mercy of arbitrary decisions by local administration. Such practices not only violate the right to freedom of religion and belief but also interfere unlawfully with the right to family life.

Punjab, in particular, must take measures to protect the Ahmadiyya community given that a majority of the Ahmadi population resides in the province. 

According to the 2023 census, 86% of the Ahmadiyya population (140,512 out of 162,684) resides in Punjab. While Amnesty International has observed that the Punjab government has taken positive steps in promoting interfaith harmony in the past two years, these efforts remain fragmented and insufficient given the scale and severity of the threat faced by the Ahmadiyya community.

Just before Eid ul Azha, Amnesty has through its letter urged the Punjab government to take decisive and preemptive measures to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the human rights of Ahmadis in Punjab. This includes elective and urgent action to ensure that officials from police and local administrations refrain from interfering with the right of the Ahmadiyya community to practice their religion, to end arbitrary arrests and detentions, and to prevent raids, or attacks on homes and places of worship and sealing of such places. These actions are in violation of Article 20 of the Pakistan’s Constitution that guarantees the right to profess religion and to manage religious institutions as well as Pakistan’s international human rights obligations. 

Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) enshrines the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Furthermore, the manner in which Ahmadis are targeted in Pakistan also violates their rights to liberty and security of person, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and non-discrimination. In many cases, these actions amount to unlawful and arbitrary interference with the privacy, family and home of members of the Ahmadiyya community.

The human rights watchdog has also urged the Punjab government to work towards repealing or amending, in line with international human rights law, discriminatory laws that enable the Ahmadiyya community to be targeted. The government is reminded by the organization that during Pakistan’s Universal Periodic Review in 2023, the report of the UPR Working Group contained several recommendations to ensure the protection of the Ahmadiyya community. 

These recommendations have included calls to repeal discriminatory laws used against members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, particularly sections 295-A, 295-B, 295-C, 298-B and 298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The authorities must also uphold the 2022 Supreme Court judgment which acknowledged the rights of Ahmadis to practice their faith within their homes without interference.

Amnesty International has also called upon the Punjab government to conduct through, independent, impartial, transparent and elective investigations into past incidents of violence, harassment and discrimination against Ahmadis during Eid celebrations. Further create an elective and accessible reporting and accountability mechanism to ensure that any violations occurring during the upcoming Eid uI-Azha are promptly addressed and that suspected perpetrators, including state and non-state actors, are held accountable. Victims and their families should be provided with access to justice and elective remedies.

source

https://voicepk.net/2026/05/ahmadis-face-death-threats-animal-seizures-and-worship-bans-with-eid-ul-azha-near/