An angry mob stormed a place of worship of the Ahmadiyya community in the Sargodha district of Punjab province and demolished its minarets and domes.
According to a spokesman of the Ahmadiyya community, the police of the local police station were also present at the time of the incident, but the policemen did not try to stop the angry crowd. Sargodha District Police Officer Faisal Kamran, however, said a case was being registered against the attackers after receiving a request and the police would ensure strict implementation of the law in this regard.
What happened?
According to Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya, the Ahmadiyya community’s place of worship was built in 1905 in the village Ghoghiyat of Bhaira tehsil of Sargodha district, where no untoward incident took place before today.
According to the police, around 11 pm on the intervening night of April 16 and 17, between 200 and 250 people came outside the place of worship, carrying hammers and iron rods in their hands. Videos of the incident, which went viral on social media, showed some people wearing masks on their faces and shouting slogans.
During this time, some young people in the crowd quickly climb on top of the minarets of the place of worship and start dropping the domes of the place of worship with the help of hammers, while the rest of the people are busy shouting slogans on the road.
“The attack took place in the presence of policemen.
Amir Mahmood, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan, said that the saddest thing is that in the presence of the police, the Ahmadiyya place of worship was attacked and minarets and domes were broken.
He said that this place of worship is very old and the relations of Ahmadis living here with the residents have always been ideal.
The spokesman said that the police also know who the attackers are and where they came from, but it appears that the police are under the influence of these people and do not want to take action against them.
“The Ahmadiyya community is requesting the police to take action against the attackers under the law, but we fear that our request will not be acted upon and no action will be taken on it,” he said.
Incidents against The Ahmadiyya Community Increase In 2023
Pakistan has seen actions against the Ahmadiyya community for many years, but these incidents have intensified during this year and there have been attacks on Ahmadiyya places of worship in different cities of the country.
On the night of January 10 this year, the minarets of the Ahmadiyya community’s place of worship at Moti Bazar in Wazirabad were demolished. According to a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community, these minarets were demolished by the police themselves. The police, however, denied the allegation.
Similarly, on January 18, 15 to 20 unidentified people entered Martin Road Karachi at 3 pm by climbing stairs and damaging two minarets in front. When the police reached the spot on information, unidentified people fled from the spot.
On February 2, 2023, the minarets of Ahmadiyya Hall in Sadar Karachi were damaged. According to the FIR, 10 to 15 unidentified persons entered the place of worship and damaged Ahmadiyya Hall.
Similarly, in February, some unidentified persons entered a place of worship in the Noornagar district of Umerkot by scaling a wall and pouring oil on the place of worship of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya. Due to this all the rows and chairs in the hall of the place of worship were burnt. It may be recalled that on the night of February 3, unidentified suspects broke the minarets and set fire to the place of worship in Goth Javed Ahmed district Mirpur Khas.
Amir Mahmood, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community, said that the mobs and government officials attacking and demolishing the places of worship of Ahmadis are in clear violation of the Constitution of Pakistan and the decision of Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani 2014. It should stop immediately and religious minorities should be protected.
He said that after the incidents of attacks on Ahmadiyya places of worship in Gujranwala and Wazirabad areas two months ago, a team from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had visited these areas and also released its fact-finding report in which a religious party, as well as the police and district administration, were also held responsible for these incidents.
He said that the police had already put up an iron board outside the place of worship located at Ghoghiyat in Sargodha under an agreement on which it was written that ‘this is not a mosque of Muslims but a place of worship of Qadiani Jamaat’. The miscreants attacked our place of worship, desecrated it, and ransacked it.
He said that in the application filed against the Ahmadi community to Sargodha police, it was alleged that the teacher was teaching the Quran to the children inside the place of worship.
‘Teacher got angry when he was stopped from teaching Quran’, imam claims in front of police
Qari Khalil-ur-Rehman, the imam of the central Jama Masjid in Ghughyat, has submitted an application to the police alleging that the Quran was being taught to children inside the Qadiani place of worship, which they could not teach legally.
He said that when the police guard present at the spot was informed about this, he forbade the teacher, but the teacher did not stop and he came out of the place of worship and allegedly threatened to kill me.
A spokesman of the Sargodha district administration has taken the stand that this is a sensitive issue that has already been discussed in the meeting of the District Peace Committee and the District Peace Committee had unanimously approved the installation of a board outside the place of worship of Ahmadis.
Sargodha District Police Officer Faisal Kamran said that all the cases are being reviewed legally and legal action will be taken against any party who has violated the law.
He said that the police do not want to do anything that will aggravate the situation, understanding the fragility of the situation, however, a case is being registered against the activists of a religious party who vandalized the place of worship of Ahmadis. “We will bring them to justice and arrest all the attackers.”