Ahmadis in Gujranwala are fearful of further attacks and say they have no confidence in the police’s ability to bring the perpetrators to justice.
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| 8 months old Hira who died in Gujranwala fire of Ahmadi homes (Photo: Twitter/Dr.Sadaf Shah @SadafShahIsf ) |
Source/Credit: Amnesty International
By Amnesty International | July 30, 2014
URGENT ACTION: AHMADIYYA COMMUNITY ATTACKED, THREE KILLED
A mob burned down the homes of a small Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan’s Punjab province on 27 July, after a resident was accused of blasphemy. Two children and their grandmother died of smoke inhalation and several others were seriously injured.
On the evening of 27 July, a local Muslim man accused a man from the Ahmadiyya religious community in Gujranwala district of posting blasphemous content on his Facebook page. The Ahmadiyya are a small religious community who consider themselves Muslim, but are regarded as heretics by many Muslims in Pakistan and suffer frequent violent attacks and officially-sanctioned discrimination.
A group of Muslim residents went to the man’s home and a scuffle broke out with some of the Ahmadi residents, during which the group was shot at. After two members of the group suffered gunshot wounds, a mob of over 100 people gathered outside the house and attacked it and other homes belonging to members of the local Ahmadiyya community. According to eyewitnesses, some members of the group set fire to houses. Many of the Ahmadi residents fled the scene, but some were too afraid to leave their homes. Bushara Bibi and her grandchildren, eight-month-old Kainat and seven-year-old Hira, both girls, died of smoke inhalation; a woman from the community suffered a miscarriage due to smoke inhalation.
The Ahmadiyya have accused the police of failing to protect them from the crowd, and the local ambulance service was unable to reach people stuck in their burning homes for fear of being attacked by the crowd. Law enforcement officials said over 100 people visited the local police station soon afterwards and demanded that the Ahmadi man accused of blasphemy be charged, while police said they planned to bring charges against 420 people, naming 20 of them, for their involvement in the attack on the Ahmadiyya community.
Ahmadis in Gujranwala are fearful of further attacks and say they have no confidence in the police’s ability to bring the perpetrators to justice. Local police have registered a First Information Report, an important initial step in the criminal justice process in Pakistan, but no one is known to have been arrested for the violence or killings. Amnesty International has documented numerous instances in Pakistan of public pressure leading to blasphemy charges being brought against members of minority religious communities, resulting in further violence against them. The Pakistani authorities have a poor record of investigating such violence and prosecuting those responsible.
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Read original post here: Amnesty International issues Urgent Action appeal for Ahmadis killed in Gujranwala, Pakistan
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Brutality in the name of Islam.....Cowards
ReplyDeleteI am sure if Prophet (PBUH) come today these people will persecute him as well. They are the worst creatures on the face of earth. I see clear resemblance between them and jews.
ReplyDelete