Pakistan: Treading carefully, Ahmadiyya community tight-lipped about intense hate campaign in Faislabad

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"Ahmadis shouldn't be caught as sitting ducks. If there was a fire in my house, you can be sure I'll be yelling 'FIRE' at the top of my lungs from my rooftop."

Anti-Ahmadi billboard stands tall at the city center,
Chowk Ghanta Ghar, (Clock Tower) Faisalabad, Pakistan

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times
By Staff report | June 17, 2014

A tightly organized city-wide hate campaign training masses on how to 'eradicate' the Ahmadis has left members of the vulnerable community afraid for their lives in Faisalabad, a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

An extremist outfit belonging to the notorious mullah Tahir-ul Qadri is running a week-long training course at one of its madrasa teaching the eager pupils all tricks of the trade about 'getting rid of Qadiniyyat.' 'Qadiani,' a choice term for Ahmadi-haters is an offencive term for Ahmadis.

The anti-Ahmadi campaign coupled with the current environment of lawlessness and religiously motivated killings by madrasa trained target killers has the rights activists on their toes wondering what the government of Pakistan is doing to protect it's minority Ahmadi group.

The evidence from the recent past indicates the government of the Punjab province is aligned with the killers and extremists against the outcast community in denying its members even the tiniest shred of decent and humane treatment in their lives or to their dead.

The members of the Ahmadi community have been tortured to death by the police, allowed to be killed inside police stations by madrasa teenagers; their mosques and prayer centers vandalized by policemen; their dead disallowed to be buried in public graveyards by police orders, and in private Ahmadi cemeteries their gravestones have been blatantly desecrated by uniformed contingents from local police stations.

The community has not yet issued an official statements about the worsening environment in Faisalabad.

"No one knows what will happen next, or tomorrow - or who will get shot at or stabbed somewhere," said a local Ahmadi, Naeem, who runs a small shop. "We haven't got any idea what to do next."

Another Ahmadi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Ahmadiyya Times that 'everyone is seriously apprehensive' about what to expect. "To expect that police will protect Ahmadi lives, I seriously doubt that. No one knows what to do or how to react. We just pray; our case is with God Almighty."

"Police is aligned with our enemies and we are operating in total darkness," he added.

The Ahmadiyya persecution website, PersecutionOfAhmadis.org, explains that the police, when faced with a situation involving mullahs and Ahmadis, will generally side with the mullahs, as that is usually what is directed by the politicians in power. "Also, often they adopt the worst explanation of a bad religious law."

Mohammad Akmal Kahloon, a human rights activist from Lahore, Pakistan, said mullah Tahir-ul Qadri's followers are becoming aggressive in many cities of the Punjab.

Kahloon, who is not an Ahmadi, says Qadri workers are turning violent and looking for excuses to stir-up troubles, referring to the Teusday's clashes in Lahore that, according to media reports, left several dead and dozens injured.

"Ahmadis shouldn't be caught as sitting ducks," Kahloon said, adding, "If there were a fire in my house --and whether there is a fire station nearby or not --you can be sure I'll be yelling 'FIRE' at the top of my lungs from my rooftop."

On a few occasions, Kahloon acknowledged, the government of the Punjab was forced to take notice of the hate-campaigns. It was due to the preemptive awareness and information campaigns lead by Ahmadi journalists and rights activists and, as a result, the Punjab government was "fearing negative publicity in the international media," he maintains.

An email seeking comments from Ahmadiyya spokesperson in Pakistan awaits answer as of the filing of this report.


  --  Pakistan: Mullah Tahir-ul Qadri group stirring up trouble for Ahmadis in Faisalabad


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