An Ahmadi man was stabbed to death by a religious fanatic on Friday in Chenab Nagar.
Sixty-year-old Ahmadi Naseer Ahmad was waiting at the Chenab Nagar Bus Stop when Shahzad Hassan forced him to raise slogans in praise of deceased TLP supremo Khadim Rizvi. He also asked the deceased to chant “Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah’! He attacked Naseer soon after.
Hassan was overpowered at the spot and handed over to police. In a statement, the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya (JA) said Ahmad had no personal rivalry with anybody. He was simply killed for being Ahmadi, the JA said.
Expressing grief over the incident, JA spokesperson Saleemuddin said Ahmadis were not even safe in Chenab Nagar — an Ahmadi-majority town. He said the proliferation of anti-Ahmadi sentiment was to be blamed for the community’s sense of insecurity. Saleemuddin questioned how the government did not nab purveyors of hate despite being cognisant of who they were.
Ahmadis are severely persecuted in Muslim-majority Pakistan where discrimination enjoys legal and constitutional sanction. An Ahmadi was earlier killed in a targeted attack on May 17. The burial of two Ahmadis was impeded separately over the year. An Ahmadi worship place was sealed in Mirpur Khas. The graves of 173 Ahmadis have been desecrated. Thirty-one confession-based cases have been lodged.
Since the anti Ahmadiya hate speech goes un-rebutted , because of restrictions imposed on Ahmadi’s by the law to explain their beliefs, a large section of society is blinded and hatred against Ahmadies is becoming a part of unquestioned religious belief.
Resultant Incidents like this are continuously increasing the sense of insecurity among Ahmadis.
As long as the section 298-C remain on the statute book,
“298-C. Person of Quadiani group, etc., calling himself a Muslim or preaching or propagating his faith :
Any person of the Quadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves ‘Ahmadis’ or by any other name), who directly or indirectly, poses himself as a Muslim, or calls, or refers to, his faith as Islam, or preaches or propagates his faith, or invites others to accept his faith, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations, or in any manner whatsoever outrages the religious feelings of Muslims shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine. ”
The anti Ahmadiyya hate campaign will continue one sided and there’s no stopping of natural corollary i.e the persecution of the community will continue to grow with every passing day and every day there will be a new act, which shall “outrage the religious feeling ” of some Muslim, somewhere, in some “manner, whatsoever ” which shall either result in an act of violence against Ahmadis or incarceration.