Karachi police lodges FIR against attack on Ahmadiyya Centre

With mob attacks and killings becoming a regular affair against the Ahmadiyya community, Pakistan has become a country where the people of this community are subjected to extensive persecution.

Karachi police lodged FIR against the attack on Ahmadiyya Centre in the Martin Quarters area, reported Dawn. The FIR was lodged at the Jamshed Quarters police station on Thursday.

Zaheer Ahmed, a member of the Ahmadiyya Centre, lodged the complaint stating that he was present in his private office in Clifton at around 3:45 pm on Wednesday (Jan 18) when he received the information that some 10-12 people wielding sticks etc had gathered at the gate of the centre and were chanting slogans, reported Dawn. They scaled the centre's wall and ransacked it, besides damaging the minar (tower), he said, adding that when he reached there after about an hour, the attackers had already fled.

With mob attacks and killings becoming a regular affair against the Ahmadiyya community, Pakistan has become a country where the people of this community are subjected to extensive persecution including hate speech and violence with at least 13 killed and 40 wounded from the community since 2017, according to a media report. The Geneva Daily, an online publication that provides in-depth coverage of issues relating to human rights violations and child abuse, reported that the approximately 4 million-strong Pakistani community is subjected to extensive torture, religious persecution by self-declared Islamic leaders, and discrimination by institutions and the general public.

Recently, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) strongly condemned the desecration of an Ahmadiyya worship site in Punjab province's Wazirabad district and called for the protection of such places of religious minorities in the country. "HRCP strongly condemns the desecration of a historical Ahmadiyya site of worship in Wazirabad, allegedly by the district administration on 10 January," the rights group said in a statement posted on its Twitter handle.

According to HRCP, the Wazirabad administration must compensate the local Ahmadiyya community for its action and ensure such an incident does not recur. The Express Tribune newspaper reported that a historic worship place of the Ahmadi community in Wazirabad was allegedly desecrated by the district administration.

A local Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) leader had filed a complaint stating that the Ahmadi community had established a room similar to a nearby mosque with minarets on it. "The vague nature of the complaint filed by a local TLP leader should drive home the urgent need for a special task force to protect all religious minorities' sites of worship, as envisaged by the 2014 Supreme Court judgement," the HRCP statement added.

Rights groups say that Pakistan's Ahmadi Muslim community has been a victim of consistent systematic discrimination, harassment and attacks for several decades. This development comes a month after a similar incident was reported in Gujranwala last month. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)