On July 30, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Malik Ilyas Awan wrote a letter to the deputy commissioner of Khushab, a district in the Sargodha Division, located in the Punjab province of Pakistan, urging him to evict the people of the minority Islamic sect of Ahmadis from the district. He also asked the district’s deputy commissioner to withdraw the security provided to the Ahmadi residents of the region.
In his letter, the leader of PML-Q, an ally of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), contended that the Ahmadis should be confined to Chenab Nagar, which is the only Ahmadi-majority city in the country of Pakistan.
The lawmaker went on to say that continuing to give protection to Qadianis/Ahmadiyyas would be a mockery of Pakistan’s Constitution and that Ahmadis should not be permitted to worship openly anywhere else than Chenab Nagar.
“It is requested that Qadianis cannot worship freely in the Islamic state of Pakistan. During Bhutto Shaheed’s government, an area in Chenab Nagar had been allocated for a particular period under an agreement. They cannot do worship outside this area,” he wrote.
Awan further wrote in a letter to DC Khushab that Pakistan is an Islamic state, and that Namaz prayers and preaching are held every Friday in Tariq Wirk’s residence in Joharabad New Satellite Town, which is completely contrary to the Islamic state’s constitution.
He further stated that the presence of Ahmadiyyas in the neighbourhood is having a negative influence on the children residing in the area.
“It is requested that their (Ahmadiyyas) security must be lifted immediately and enquiry be held in this regard. Those who don’t have faith in the finality of prophethood must be ousted from the district,” wrote Awan.
Who are the Ahmadiyyas
Ahmadis in Pakistan represent a persecuted minority and the exclusion of Ahmadis is even enshrined in the constitution of Pakistan.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a prominent Muslim scholar and reformer, formed this Community in Qadian, India, in 1889. The movement he founded condemned any kind of terrorism and the use of aggressive violence to preach religion, i.e. the current concept of ‘Jihad’. The extremist ulemas are vehemently opposed to this benign interpretation of Islam. For years, they have exploited it as a pretext to exclude this community from the folds of Islam. In many Islamic nations, especially Pakistan, the Mullahs (the mediaeval orthodox clergy), politicians, and the military in power have collaborated to oppress and persecute this reformist Community.
In 1974, ZA Bhutto, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, saw it as a political benefit to impose “non-Muslim” status on Muslim Ahmadis by a constitutional amendment. The “mullahs” backed this amendment wholeheartedly. This amendment paved the way for the Community’s persecution. Since then, the state and the Mullahs have worked together to persecute Ahmadis.
Ten years after the Amendment, in 1984, dictator President Zia-ul-Haq introduced Ordinance XX, which further increased the quandary of the Ahmadis in Pakistan. This legislation made it a crime for Ahmadis to practise or simply announce their beliefs in Islam, punishable by three years in jail and an unlimited fine.
As a result, since the year 1984, hundreds of Ahmadis have been severely abused and persecuted for their faith and the institutional apathy towards them has only increased the difficulties of these persecuted minorities.
Notably, the plight of Ahmadis in the Islamic state of Pakistan is so pathetic that have been excluded from the Pakistani government’s minority commission aimed at safeguarding the rights of the country’s minorities. According to the Pakistani constitution, Ahmadis can’t call themselves Muslims, and they can’t call their place of worship as mosques. Moreover, their places of worship can’t look like a Masjid or Mosque, and they can’t have a structure like minarets. Moreover, Ahmadis also can’t write the Kalima-e-Tayyiba on its walls.
Here is how the Khushab district in Pakistan has been notorious for Ahmadi persecution
While Ahmadiyyas are tormented and persecuted throughout the Islamic country, Khushab, a district in the Sargodha Division in Pakistan’s Punjab province, is particularly notorious for their persecution and oppression. Over the years, there have been several occurrences in Pakistan’s Khushab area when Ahmadis have been harassed and discriminated against, and on some occasions, brutally beaten up and killed, with authorities doing nothing to protect them.
Ahmadi man was stabbed to death for his faith in Punjab province close to Khushab in Pakistan
In fact, only this year in May, a 35-year-old Ahmadi man was stabbed to death by a religious fanatic over his faith in the country’s Okara district in Punjab province. The distance between Okara and Khushab district is approximately 270 km.
Kalma erased from an Ahmadiyya mosque with police help in Pakistan
Similarly in April this year, an incident was reported from the Khushab district where Kalma was erased from an Ahmadiyya mosque with the help of the police and the district authorities.
Graves of members of the Ahmadi community desecrated in Khushab, Pakistan
In 2020, police allegedly desecrated three graves belonging to the members of the Ahmadiyya community in Punjab’s Chak-2 TDA district in Khushab. Ironically, the incident had taken place a day after then Prime Minister Imran Khan warned that anyone targeting the country’s minorities would be dealt with strictly.
Ahmadi bank manager shot, Islamists cheer the man who shot him
Similarly in November 2020, videos had surfaced on social media where Islamists are seen cheering and greeting a guard after he allegedly shot a bank manager over a purported blasphemy allegation.
The incident had reportedly taken place in Khushab’s Tehsil Quaidabad on November 4 (Wednesday). One Ahmad Nawaz, a security guard posted at a bank branch, shot and fatally injured National Bank of Pakistan official Muhammad Imran Hanif. Nawaz said he had opened fire as Hanif allegedly committed blasphemy. However, Pakistani police confirmed the two had actually been engaging in a verbal spat for the past couple of days, which had turned sour after they could not reconcile their differences.
Student beaten up, expelled on false charges of blasphemy
Another Ahmadi family in Pakistan’s Khushab district became a victim of gross discrimination and persecution in November 2011. According to reports, a 16-year-old Ahmadi student named Rana Sajeel Ahmad of Pubic High School in Khushab, Pakistan was beaten up severely by a gang of students on November 23, 2011, over charges of blasphemy. Additionally, the activists belonging to the Islamic organization, Aalmi Majlis Tahafuz Khatm-e-Nabuwat (AMTKN) had accused his father, Rana Hakim Jameel, of doing the same by portraying Sajeel as a Muslim in his school admission form.
The school administration found it convenient to accept the fabrication. The next day, Rana Hakim Jamil, met the school principal, but he expelled Ahmad from the school accusing him of blasphemy.
Ever since the false charges emerged, the father-son duo had gone into hiding, fearing their safety. Interestingly, the Khushab police did not bother to register an FIR against the accused, instead had arrested a member of the family of the victims since the family refused to tell them about Sajeel’s whereabouts.
Children aged 8 and 11 booked for subscribing to an Ahmadi magazine
In 2007, reports emerged about how the Khushab police registered cases against five Ahmadis as young as 8 and 11 years old for subscribing to a century-old Ahmadi monthly magazine.
Umair Ahmad (8) and Nusrat Jahan (11) and three other Ahmadis were arrested for receiving the Ahmadiyya monthly for children Tashhizul Azhan by post. The Ahmadia magazine is being published since 1906 in Rabwah, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. The complainant described the magazine, sent through the mail, as “banned literature.”
In a press release issued on February 1 from Rabwah, Saleem-ud-Din, the Ahmadi spokesperson in Pakistan, countered the charges, saying the magazine “is not banned.” He added that Punjab Home Department officials have expressed total ignorance about any ban. Copies of the magazine were taken illegally from the post office, he continued, alleging the case “was registered against innocent children merely on the basis of religious bigotry.”
School teachers face criminal litigation
Another report suggests how two Ahmadis Rafi Ahmad Shahzad and Malik Rashid Ahmad of Khushab who were school teachers had to face charges under PPC 298C and defend themselves against three years in prison after some mischief monger reported against them.
Pakistan notorious for Ahmadi persecution
While the aforementioned crimes occurred in Pakistan’s Khushab area, the country as a whole is infamous for its persecution of the Ahmadiyya minority. In the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, an estimated 4 million Ahmadis, along with other minority populations such as Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians, experience extreme harassment and prejudice in the form of hate crimes and mob violence. These incidents are further aided by institutional apathy which prevents any action against the persecutors.
Despite being one of them, Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan continue to be one of the most susceptible victims of Pakistan’s brutal blasphemy laws. Since 2017, at least 13 Ahmadis have been killed and 40 have been injured as a result of their ethnicity.
