Police, Islamists demolish Ahmadi community's worship place in Pakistan: Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya

Lahore: A 120-year-old worship place of the minority Ahmadi community was demolished by police on the pressure of a radical Islamist party in Pakistan's Punjab province, a community organisation said on Monday.

The police also detained five Ahmadis for protesting the demolition of their worship place in the Chatha area of Gujranwala, some 80 kms from Lahore.

"A team of police personnel along with the members of the radical Islamist party (Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan) entered the Ahmadi worship place last week and demolished it. They cut down minarets with a grinder," Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JAP) said.

The police team also detained five Ahmadis for protesting against the illegal action, it added.

Under the law, the Ahmadi worship places built before 1984 cannot be demolished. "And this structure was built 120 years ago," the JAP said.

The Gujranwala police said that it demolished the Ahmadi worship place on complaints that it had minarets like that of a Muslim mosque, which cannot be allowed.

Police said it released the detained Ahmadis whom they picked up from the site.

JAP spokesperson Aamir Mahmood strongly condemned the rising hate campaign against Ahmadis and the state authorities’ continued subjugation to extremist pressure.

He said the persecution of Ahmadis has been ongoing for a long time, but the situation has now escalated to the extent that even worship within private premises is being denied.

He said that freedom of religion and its practice is a fundamental human right, enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

Mahmood said in the first two months of this year, 91 Ahmadi graves have been desecrated in six different incidents. Besides, minarets and arches of five Ahmadi worship were demolished by the police.

"Ahmadis across Pakistan continue to face harassment and intimidation due to their faith. Ahmadi teachers and government employees are being threatened at their workplaces," he said, adding that continued persecution of Ahmadis is severely damaging Pakistan’s global image.

"Under the guise of religion, certain malicious elements are intensifying their nefarious campaign against Ahmadis while the authorities are facilitating this extremist agenda instead of ensuring their protection," the spokesperson said.

He urged the people of Pakistan and those in positions of power to reject religious extremism and safeguard the constitutional rights of Ahmadi citizens.

In Pakistan, religious extremists are ramping up their hateful campaigns against Ahmadis, leading to increasing harassment at workplaces, job dismissals, and public calls for boycotting Ahmadi shopkeepers.

Pakistan's Parliament in 1974 declared the Ahmadi community as non-Muslims. A decade later, they were banned from calling themselves Muslims. They are banned from preaching and from travelling to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.

In Pakistan, around 10 million out of the 220 million population are non-Muslims.

According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2021, there are 96.47 per cent Muslims, followed by 2.14 per cent Hindus, 1.27 per cent Christians, 0.09 per cent Ahmadi Muslims and 0.02 per cent others.

The minorities in conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan often complain of harassment by the extremists.