Australia: Canberra man Kamran Ahmed mourns Ahmadi cousin's murder in Pakistan

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United Nations human rights experts have called on Pakistan to provide better protection and security for its Ahmadiyya population, as well as greater freedom of religion in the country.

Kamran Ahmed, with sons Khakan and Sultan, holds a photo of his first cousin
 Sheikh Sajid Mehmood, who was killed in Pakistan on November 27.
Photo: Stephen Jeffery

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | AU Desk
Source/Credit: Canberra Times
By Stephen Jeffery | December 3, 2016

Although he moved to Australia almost two decades ago, Kamran Ahmed has never forgotten the fear he felt while exercising his faith in his native Pakistan.

That danger was brought back into sharp, tragic perspective last Sunday , when his cousin was gunned down outside his Karachi home in what police described as a sectarian-motivated attack.

Kamran Ahmed, with sons Khakan and Sultan, holds a photo of his first cousin Sheikh Sajid Mehmood, who was killed in Pakistan on November 27. Photo: Stephen Jeffery

Sheikh Sajid Mehmood was a member of the minority Ahmadiyya community, a sect of Islam with teachings regarded as heretical by the constitution of Pakistan.

The 55-year-old auto parts dealer was killed outside his house in Sachel, a district of Karachi that has been the site of two other murders of Ahmadi men in the past six months.

Canberra's Ahmadiyya community held prayers on Friday for Mr Mehmood, who Mr Ahmed described as a kind, generous man.

He said his cousin had been close to his family, visited Canberra often and had a fondness for cricket.

"I never saw him being rude or harsh to anyone, never ever," he said.

"I'll give you an example; he has two cars. When someone needs to go somewhere, he'd let them take his second car."

The news of his cousin's death was shocking to Mr Ahmed, and left him fearing for other members of his family still in Pakistan.

"Whenever I get a call from one of my family members, the first thing I think is, 'May Allah protect them from all the harm'," he said.

"I'm very much having fears about my other family members, my fellow Ahmadis; my brother is there. My father is an elderly man."

Police investigating Mr Mehmood's death told Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn they were looking for four suspects, who had used two motorbikes to escape.

Given their state-sanctioned non-Muslim status, Ahmadis are forbidden from calling themselves Muslims, naming places of worship mosques or proselytising in the country, with a risk of imprisonment for those found guilty.

Ahmadiyya ideology diverges from orthodox Islam through the belief that the movement's founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a promised messiah and prophet.

Other branches hold that Muhammad was the final prophet, a position enshrined in a 1974 amendment to Pakistan's constitution defining Islam.

United Nations human rights experts have called on Pakistan to provide better protection and security for its Ahmadiyya population, as well as greater freedom of religion in the country.

Terrorist groups have targeted Ahmadis in the country, including an attack on two Lahore mosques in 2010 that resulted in 94 deaths and 120 injuries.

Mr Ahmed said he had been bullied at university when former friends discovered he was Ahmadi.

"We used to have lunch together, but then they started writing hateful slogans on the blackboard, they'd put up posters on the noticeboard saying 'Kamran Ahmed belongs to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community'," he said.

"I'd watch my back whenever I was outside. Every day, I was in fear of my life."

Police are continuing to investigate Mr Mehmood's death.


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