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| Anti Ahmadiyya posters |
Source/Credit: Daily Times | Pakistan
By Afnan Khan | December 11, 2010
LAHORE: A number of hardliner clerics from various sects have launched a wide-scale joint hate campaign against Ahmedis, and especially those living in Mughalpura are being targeted.
The campaign is mainly launched by local clerics from Shah Kamal Mosque in Ganj Bazaar Area of Mughalpura in collaboration with hardliners from the Deoband, Barelvi and other sects. They are targeting the local Ahmedis by provoking the youth and other people not only to boycott the community but are also urging them to kill Ahmedis in the name of religion.
The hate campaign, launched right under the nose of local authorities, includes distribution of pamphlets, wall chalking, corner meetings and banners. The hardliners have even warned the local Ahmedis that they would force the community to exhume the bodies of their dead if they tried to burry anyone at a graveyard.
Most of the hate material is published and distributed under the banner of Central Hanfia Farooqia Mosque located in Gulistan Colony, Mustafabad, and the publishers are claiming to be the “lions of Islam for the service”.
The text written on the wall of Shah Kamal Graveyard reads, “There is no place for Qadianis and Ahmedis in the graveyard.” Other posters term the Ahmedis “infidels, blasphemers, converts and those who belong to hell”, while the hate material also urges citizens to socially boycott the Ahmedis permanently and stop mingling with them.
The terrorist attacks on Ahmedi worship places in Lahore on May 28, and firing on one of their worship places in the Ganj Bazaar area a few days ago, were the first indications that the hate campaign against the community was working.
Local Ahmedis told Daily Times that they were living under enormous pressure and threat by their neighbours belonging to other sects owing to the hate campaign. There is a significant number of Ahmedis living in the area and most of them now wanted to leave due to the threats posed by the hardliners.
They said the possibility of a bigger terrorist attack against the Ahmedis in the area could not be ruled out as hardliner clerics from various sects were doing their best to provoke the local youth against the community. They said the local police had nabbed the culprits who were involved in the firing incident on the Ahmedi’s worship place, but they never kept their promise of stopping the hate campaign against them, which was worsening by the day.
A local resident said they had tried to burry their dead in the local graveyard in the past but some clerics got furious and threatened of exhuming the bodies of their ancestors if they pushed their demand further. He said the government had no right to celebrate World Human Rights Day when they were persecuting minorities and Ahmedis in a way that they can be targeted anytime, while the culprits are easily saved by the government after such incidents.
The Mughalpura SHO and other officers could not be reached for comment.
Read original post here: Hardline clerics launch hate campaign against Mughalpura Ahmedis
All this is so disappointing to know, if this is the social attitude of general public in provincial capital, what do we expect from those living in small cities and towns. Our government, public and state are all under control of religious extremists, and none is willing to get out of it.
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