Two individuals from the Ahmadiyya community were fatally shot by a 19-year-old religious student in Phalia tehsil of Mandi Bahauddin district, Pakistan.
Aamir Mahmood, the community spokesperson, informed Dawn that the tragic incident occurred on a Saturday afternoon in the same area, with only a 20-minute gap between the two murders.
Mahmood revealed that the perpetrator was a student at a local religious seminary, and his teacher was known for spreading hate speech against their community.
The victims were identified as 64-year-old Ghulam Sarwar and 30-year-old Rahat Ahmad Bajwa, as reported by Dawn. Upon receiving reports from locals, the authorities swiftly apprehended the suspect after a chase.
The criminal admits to his actions
According to Mandi Bahauddin District Police Officer (DPO) Ahmad Mohyyuddin, the police recovered the murder weapon following the suspect’s arrest. The culprit, Ali Raza, confessed to the killings of the two minority community members.
The 19-year-old stated that he was influenced by various speeches against the minority community on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, prompting him to commit the murders. The DPO mentioned that the teenager aimed to eliminate “every Ahmadi”.
Furthermore, a terrorism case was filed against the suspect, and the police are investigating the potential involvement of others in the crime. Regrettably, this is not the first instance of Ahmadis being targeted by extremist Muslims.
The Ahmadiyyas, a minority group, identify themselves as part of Islam and believe in the Messiah Ghulam Ahmad who they believe lived after Prophet Muhammad. However, in 1974, former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto declared them as non-Muslims in Pakistan.
Ever since then, the Ahmadiyyas have faced various forms of discrimination, both legally and socially, in Pakistan. In the past decade, there has been a significant rise in attacks on their properties. This discrimination against Ahmadis in Pakistan is a result of the Islamization of the country, which began during Bhutto’s government in the 1970s and worsened under the draconian regime of General Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s.
During General Zia ul-Haq’s reign, Ahmadis were prohibited from calling themselves Muslims, opening mosques, and their existing places of worship were forcibly closed or desecrated by hard-line Islamists with state support.
According to Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights, from 1984 to September 2023, over 280 Ahmadis were killed in targeted violence, while 415 faced physical assaults. Additionally, 51 Ahmadi worship places were damaged, 39 were set on fire, and 18 were forcibly occupied, with authorities also sealing 46 others.
Unfortunately, Pakistan is not the only Muslim-majority country where Ahmadis face persecution. In Bangladesh, Ahmadis also experience discrimination, and a similar situation exists in Indonesia.
In Indonesia, where the majority of its 200 million Muslims are Sunnis, approximately 100,000 Shiites and 400,000 Ahmadis have been declared “deviant” by the country’s top Islamic body in 2008. The plight of Ahmadis extends beyond the borders of Pakistan, highlighting the need to address religious intolerance and protect the rights of all individuals, regardless of their beliefs.
Ahmadi leaders in Indonesia have consistently voiced their grievances regarding the intimidation and terrorization faced by members of their community since 2005.
Furthermore, their prayers and activities have been prohibited in numerous regions throughout the country. Disturbingly, the Ahmadis are unable to seek legal recourse from the courts if they encounter discrimination based on religious grounds.
