Pakistan: Slain Ahmadi leader Malik Saleem Latif laid to rest in Sahiwal

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According to Reuters news service, it was the latest in a series of sectarian incidents in Pakistan, where security forces have battled groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for years.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Agencies / AT/TOA
By Staff Report | March 30, 2017

The prominent Ahmadi community member who was gunned down on Thursday in an attack claimed by banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), has been laid to rest Thursday evening, (March 30) in Sahiwal, Pakistan.

Advocate Malik Saleem Latif, a cousin of  Pakistan's first Nobel Prize winner, Abdus Salam, was shot while traveling with his son on a motorcycle in the town of Nankana Sahib, near Lahore in the southern province of Punjab.

In a news report clarifying earlier accounts, Latif was killed on the orders of banned LeJ by a suspect named Rashid who was reportedly influenced by extremist group Majlis Tahufuz Khatm-e Nubuwwat.

Police say Rashid worked as a security guard at a local jewelry shop and also drove a rickshaw for hire on part-time basis. He was wearing his security guard uniform when he shot the victim.

"Threats against Ahmadis are common in the area and Latif was a prominent member of the community and a well-known lawyer," the Ahmadiyya community has been quoted in the local media.

"Saleem Latif was spreading Ahmadi beliefs in the region," the militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, said in a statement claiming Thursday's attack.

According to Reuters news service, it was the latest in a series of sectarian incidents in Pakistan, where security forces have battled groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for years.

Mob violence and attacks against the Ahmadiyya community skyrocketed since the government legislated the sect as non-Muslim in 1974.

-- Pakistan: Slain Ahmadi leader Malik Saleem Latif laid to rest in Sahiwal


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