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| Attacks on mosques in Lahore left 87 Ahmadis dead in May 2010 |
Source/Credit: News | Data | Police reports
By Ahmadiyya Times | November 11, 2010
The situation of Ahmadis in Pakistan is getting worse with the passage of time and Mr. Shahid Mahmud is no exception.
For Mr. Mahmud and his family fear and harassment have become a way of life and they continue to suffer one affliction after another at the hands of extremist terrorists of Pakistan.
In Pakistan, where Ahmadi life has been made cheap by the ‘death punishment’ edicts issued by the extremist religious clerics, mere existence of an Ahmadi can become a doubly rewarding; a virtuous act as well as a money-making, occasion for the opportunists.
Such is the case of Mr. Mahmood, an Ahmadi from Rawalpindi, Pakistan who was kidnapped in November 2007 by Afghan Taliban and held hostage for ransom. Even after his family paid the ransom in millions, he was not released, some say, because of his faith -in that, the Ahmadis ought to be killed for being apostates of Islam, the Islamist clerics have long preached.
Lucky for Mr. Mahmud, acting on a drug dealer’s tip, the police carried out a successful raid in January 2008 and Mr. Mahmud was recovered after two month of imprisonment. The police caught a gang of criminals that also included a police officer as a coconspirator. However, for unknown reasons police officer was able to escape arrest.
The remaining suspects were successfully prosecuted but received lenient sentences by a court and the convicted terrorists were released after only a short imprisonment. The police officer suspected of involvement in kidnappings and other criminal activities was never pursued for prosecution.
Mr. Mahmud's sense of safety was short-lived. After criminals early release from prison, the gangs once again become a threat to the society, particularly to Mr. Mahmud and his family. According to reports the police officer who escaped justice earlier again continued to provide aid and cover to the criminals.
This was the year when the host of a popular TV show, A’alim Online (scholar online), Amir Liaqat of Geo Television invited Muslim extremists on his program and took anti-Ahmadiyya campaign to airwaves. The frank discussion between the TV host, Liaqat, and the ‘scholars’ promoted killing of the members of the Ahmadiyya community - because ‘they are apostates of Islam,’ the so-called scholars asserted.’ The rhetoric resulted in the immediate murders of two prominent members of the Ahmadiyya community in Sind. Amir Liaqat has since denied that he meant to harm ahmadis, but the harm had been done, nonetheless.
Now, Mr. Mahmud’s faith was also made the rallying cry for those intend to do harm. The criminals announced 'revenge' and put up posters in the business district where Mr. Mahmud worked warning that with Shahid Mahmud being a ‘Mirzai’ (an Ahmadi), it is incumbent that he be boycotted. The violence was threatened even against those who would violate this edict and decision.
The poster read: “If you value your life, do not do business in his [Shahid Mahmud] market.”
“We have rocket launchers and we will use those,” the poster further warned.
When Mr. Mahmud’s place of business was attacked and fired upon, injuring his employees, he could not put up with the ever-present threat to his life and fled the country. He has gone into hiding abroad but his family remains behind waiting to catch up with him.
With the head of the family away, the family faces continuous threats from the criminals who seem bent on carrying out the mullahs’ edicts.
‘The Mirzais [Ahmadis] are to be killed because they are apostates of Islam,’ the extremists have preached and resolved as recently as few weeks ago at a Khatm-e Nubuwwat conference in the Punjab, Pakistan.
In May 2010, 87 members of the Ahmadiyya community were gunned down and several hundred were left injured by Taliban in two simultaneous terrorists attacks on Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, Pakistan.
Two Ahmadis, a father and his son, were gunned down last week near Mardan Pakistan for their faith. The son had previously survived a terrorist attack on Ahmadis and was recently recognized by the government for his bravery in thwarting the terrorist attack on the Ahmadi mosque in Mardan.
Shahid Mahmud and his family have suffered greatly over the past years and there seems no light at the end of this tunnel yet. The situation of Ahmadis in Pakistan is getting worse with the passage of each day.
-- In compiling this report, Ahmadiyya Times reviewed news accounts from Pakistan's Daily Times, Daily Dawn, Daily Nawai Waqt [Urdu]; police report records [FIRs], community reports, persecution data from ThePersecution.Org, reports issued by the international organization, Human Rights Watch (HRW), The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and Ahmadiyya Times archives.
--- By Imran Jattala, Ahmadiyya Times.
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