Pakistan: Asian Human Rights Commission slams government for failing to protect Ahmadis

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Local residents and the media blame the Punjab provincial government for triggering sectarian killings in order to divert attention from the current political crisis...

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Asian Human Rights Commission
By Statement | July 30, 2014

On Sunday evening, July 27, a crowd of around 150 fanatics attacked a small, peaceful community of 17 Ahmadi families living in Arafat Colony, on the outskirts of Gujranwala district, Punjab. As a result of the attack, eight houses were burned down. Three Ahmadis in one of the houses succumbed to the flames. All the three were female, and two were young children.

Not only have the federal and provincial governments failed to provide security for the community, no move has been made to arrest the local mosque leader who delivered a hate speech, calling for the murder of Ahmadis.

Those killed in the attack include Bashiran, a 55-year-old woman, Kainat, an eight-month-old baby girl, and Hira, a seven-year-old girl. Another Ahmadi woman, seven months pregnant, suffered a miscarriage and lost her baby. Eight others have been badly burnt and are in hospital. A storage building and several vehicles have also been attacked over the alleged blasphemy.

Local Muslim clergy have been engaged in spreading propaganda to incite people to kill Ahmadis. Such anti-Ahmadiyya attacks are fuelled, in part, by Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which targets Ahmadis and negates their rights to freedom of faith and religion.
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Local residents and the media blame the Punjab provincial government for triggering sectarian killings in order to divert attention from the current political crisis, and to influence the judicial commission that is investigating the June 17 incident, in which 13 people were killed and 80 injured. In the June 17 incident, the Punjab government ordered the police to shoot directly at the demonstrators, who were resisting the police barricade outside the house of the religious and political leader, Allam Tahirul Qadri.

The news of this tragedy spread around the world and has been internationally condemned. In accordance with usual practice, the Pakistan Government has not even acknowledged the June 17 incident, forget about taking action against perpetrators or expressing sympathy to the bereaved.

The international community is well aware of the continuous murders of Ahmadis, on account of their beliefs. A few weeks ago, a young Ahmadi was murdered in Nawabshah, in broad daylight, for reason other than being an Ahmadi. And, few months ago, an eminent cardiologist from the USA, who was in Pakistan to provide voluntary service, was also killed.

In response to attacks on Ahmadis, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has stated the following:

“HRCP is shocked and disgusted at the killing of four citizens belonging to the Ahmadi faith after a blasphemy allegation. Four other Ahmadis were reported to be hospitalised in a critical condition. As things stand in the country now, particularly in Punjab, a blasphemy charge, however unfounded, makes such cold-blooded killings somehow less repulsive. The people who were killed were not even indirectly accused of the blasphemy charge. Their only fault was that they were Ahmadi. Torching women and children in their house simply because of their faith represents brutalisation and barbarism stooping to new lows. That the mob was dancing for the TV camera after torching the houses of people who were not even accused of blasphemy proves that the whole episode had nothing to do with blasphemy but was aimed at further vitimising an already persecuted community.”

Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law does not clearly define blasphemy, but states that the offence is punishable by death. Anyone can file a blasphemy case – claiming his or her religious feelings have been hurt. The accused are often lynched, and lawyers and judges defending or acquitting them have been attacked. Rights groups say the blasphemy law has been used to seize money and property.
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