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Quetta; October 11, 2009: Mr. Zulfiquar Mansur’s body was found outside the suburbs of the city on October 11. He had been shot three times, including in the eye. He had been abducted a month earlier. He was 35 years old. He left his home in his car on September 11, 2009 when armed persons abducted him. These criminals used the same car they had used earlier to abduct another Ahmadi. They contacted the family subsequently and demanded 150 million rupees. They mentioned the ‘Qadianism’ of the victim often in their talk. Their original demand was, of course, beyond the capacity of the family. Intermittent negotiations went on in the following weeks. Eventually, mutually agreed demands were met. However, the abductors still killed Mr. Mansur. More than a year ago, they murdered Mr. Mansur’s uncle, Mr. Abbas Ahmad in Quetta in April 2008. This year in June, Mr. Khalid Rashid, another relative of Mr. Mansur was murdered in the same city. Quetta has quite a history of anti-Ahmadi violence. As early as 1948, Major Mahmud Ahmad, an army doctor, was the first Ahmadi to be murdered for his faith in Pakistan. The authorities did not charge anyone for the act and took almost no action against the mullas who had openly incited the mob to undertake the criminal assault. This attitude has prevailed ever since. Ahmadiyya mosque in Quetta was sealed by authorities in 1986 on demand of Muslim clerics. The district authorities of Balochistan expelled Ahmadis from their homes in subsequent years. The same religious elements, with which the authorities cooperated to suppress Ahmadis, have now turned against the state; they assassinated a provincial minister last week. The state, however, continues to nourish its links with Ulama Karam علماء کرام. Mr. Mansur is survived by his old mother, a widow and two sons of school-going age. |
Rabwah; October 23, 2009: In an act of blatant discrimination, the police booked Mr. M. A. Naeem for violation of the Amplifier Act 3. Mr. Naeem had recited the Friday sermon that lasted only 10 minutes. The police, that was accompanied by a local mulla, Ghulam Mustafa, found nothing objectionable in the sermon, but held that the accused’s voice was audible loudly in the street. The FIR mentions that the police entered the Ahmadiyya place of worship; the accused stopped the sermon and joined the worshippers so he could not be apprehended, and the police took in possession the amplifying equipment. All this is fabrication. In fact, the police did not enter the mosque; Mr. Naeem continued the sermon from the Mimber; and the police did not take the equipment in its charge either. Although it is possible that the sermon was audible in the adjacent street of the mosque, the police are well aware that Non-Ahmadi clerics use their mosque amplifiers that carry their voices kilometers away. The fact that the police were accompanied by a rabid cleric is ample proof that the police acted on behalf of the mulla. Obviously, the Rabwah police have no instructions yet from their superiors to shun the mulla — on the contrary, perhaps the opposite is still the order of the day. Kot Muhammad Yar, Chiniot: In serious violation of his charter of duties the SHO Police Station Chiniot City, Sheikh Tahir, ordered Ahmadis of Kot Muhammad Yar to stop the Friday worship. In fact his duty is to facilitate worship, not to obstruct it in league with mullas. The SHO sent for the Ahmadi seniors of the village and told them to give a written undertaking on a Stamp Paper that they will no more offer their Friday congregational prayers. He threatened them with a fine of Rs. 500,000 and registration of criminal cases. Ahmadis told him that they will not forego their right to worship and will convey him their intentions by November 3. Ahmadi leaders have advised the local community to ask the SHO to give his orders in writing. This village is also inhabited by a Pakhtun community who has a Taliban mentality. Their children have been throwing stones at Ahmadis’ homes. Perhaps the conspiracy is to create a law and order situation, and register unwarranted criminal cases against Ahmadis in collusion with the police. It is relevant to mention that Chiniot is now a district headquarters town. It is located only 5 miles east of Rabwah. Tatle Aali, district Gujranwala: Tatle Aali is inhabited by a small Ahmadiyya community of a dozen households. The Khatme Nabuwwat organization’s agitators have raised the level of communal agitation in the village, and have co-opted the police to make life difficult for the Ahmadis. The police SHO sent for the two parties, and readily accepted the untenable logic of non-Ahmadis that as Ahmadis offer their prayers the same way as they, they should be barred from offering congregational prayers. The SHO told the Ahmadi delegation that if they did not agree with that, they should get a verdict from the court; till then no congregational prayers would be allowed to Ahmadis. While Pakistan is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it allows its police to act in clear violation of its provisions. As a result, there was police presence in the village the next Friday, and they ensured that Ahmadis did not congregate for their Friday prayers. The question is: is the District Police Officer not aware what his SHOs are doing? Should they not receive some training in upholding human rights and freedom of religion and belief, to which Pakistan is committed through international covenants? Rabwah; 15 and 16 October 2009: Mullas of the Khatme Nabuwwat faction were allowed and facilitated again by authorities to hold still another major conference in Rabwah, the Ahmadiyya headquarters town where non-Ahmadi population is less than five percent. Numerous such conferences are permitted here every year. This is particularly noteworthy in view of the fact that Ahmadis are not allowed to hold their traditional annual conference in their own town. This is discrimination practiced unabashedly. These Khatme Nabuwwat conferences have become quite a show-piece, and they reflect the decadent state of the Pakistani society in religious, social, governmental and political spheres. Here the mulla and, indirectly, the state show their true colours in violating all decency and universally accepted norms. Human rights, freedom of religion and belief, religious tolerance etc are trampled upon openly and vigorously. Politics is practiced in the name of religion, the state looks the other way; in fact it participates to show its solidarity with the mulla. This year Maulvi Ataur Rahman MNA, the Federal Minister of Tourism came all the way from Islamabad to join and speak at the conference. The following report, compiled mostly from the vernacular press reports from the dailies Jang, Nawa-i-Waqt, Ausaf and Jinnah of 16 and 17 October, 2009, Lahore clearly supports the observation made above. In this report we shall not report the profuse insults, diatribes and abuses hurled at the Ahmadiyya Community and its respected religious leaders. The mulla does that at every available opportunity, and the authorities do not hold him accountable under the law of the land, PPC 295-A. It is rather strange that these clerics who cry hoarse in defence of the blasphemy law, indulge in slander against others, with no qualms. In fact, in this particular conference, although held in the name of End of Prophethood, they placed the Blasphemy issue (Namus Rasalat ناموس رسالت and Tauheen Rasalat توہین رسالت ) on the agenda and made it the theme — obviously as a propaganda tool. It is a norm at these conferences that the mulla on the stage, with microphone in front, blurts out whatever he wishes with no regard to morality and decency. For instance the following was conveyed at this occasion:
One can draw one’s conclusions from the above exhortations made in public. The organizers and the speakers kept an eye on their national and international political agenda, and availed of the stage of ‘end of prophethood’ to say the following that had nothing to do with the theme of the conference:
Only a wily and foxy group of clerics can relate all the above to the theme of end of prophethood. The mullas came up with a list of demands, as usual. This list is never ending; more than half a century ago they started with a list of 22 demands against Ahmadis; all these have been accepted by the state, however they keep on adding to this list with the passage of time. Hell is reputed to be a bottomless pit. Excerpts:
Whither human rights and freedom of religion and belief! All the above was said and demanded in a conference attended by a federal minister. Following is also relevant and of interest, from the conference:
Maulvi Ata-ur-Rahman the Federal Minister of Tourism attended the conference. The press reported his statement: Qadianis are using a number of political personalities as pawns to cover up their disbelief and apostasy (kufr o irtidad کفروارتداد ). The Ahmadiyya community of Rabwah, in the light of the past experience, had to stay vigilant against any possible foray by these unwelcome guests. The mischief of the participating mullas, however, affected and motivated not only the participants but millions of readers of the vernacular press who published daily reports on the proceeding of the conference. The evil of their propaganda will have a bearing not only on Ahmadis, but also on the Pakistani public who are fed this fodder of obscurantism. The effect of this diet now manifests itself every day all over the country in the form of bomb blasts. Multan: It is learnt that the police have arrested three men who have admitted to the murders of Dr. Shiraz Bajwah, his wife Dr. Noreen and Rana Ataul Karim, Ahmadis. These murders were committed in March 2009 and August 2009 respectively. In Pakistan, an admission to the police can sometimes be disputable. The accused normally disown such admissions in the court. Arrest of a murderer here is no guarantee that he will be punished for his crime. Often the police do a bad job in presenting adequate and credible evidence to the court. Also, it is not rare that for a crime committed under religious motivation, a judge may consider it rather pious to be lenient to the indicted criminal. For example on October 7, 2005 a group of religious terrorists opened fire on Ahmadis in a mosque in Mong, District Mandi Bahauddin, where they were offering their morning prayers in congregation. The attack resulted in 8 Ahmadis dead and 20 injured. The police eventually arrested the culprits who had committed not only this crime but some others as well. The administration was confident of the guilt of the accused. However the trial judge of the anti-terrorism court acquitted them of the charge and set them free. In another incident two mullas murdered an Ahmadi in a Faisalabad bazaar in broad daylight on November 14, 2002. Subsequent to the arrest they proudly claimed that by dispatching the Ahmadi to hell they had performed only their religious duty. The trial judge, in his own wisdom, acquitted the accused who had held the victim firmly while the other stabbed him, and sentenced the one who wielded the knife to death. Later, on appeal, the High Court, in unprecedented way, reduced the death sentence of the murderer of the Ahmadi to 7 years’ imprisonment. The victim’s family, in protest, appealed to the Supreme Court who, in a summary way, dismissed the appeal and maintained the reduced sentence of the religiously-motivated convicted murderer. Chichawatni: It is a matter of routine with mullas to fully avail of government’s deliberate negligence, and promote their political interests behind the curtain of End of Prophethood. They hold such conferences, and being very fond of publicity they get the proceedings published in the vernacular press. This way, they expose their mundane and unbecoming designs, but considering their eventual interests, they are not shy of such an exposure. The daily Aman, Faisalabad of October 29, 2009 reported on such a Khatme Nabuwwat conference in Chichawatni. We produce below the headlines and excerpts from the text:
From the press reports it appears that hardly anything was said in the conference on the subject of ‘end of prophethood’. The speeches were restricted to Waziristan, the US and terrorism. Anti-Ahmadiyya propaganda went on throughout the country during the month. Some incidents are reported below:
Some religious activists are trying to disturb the law and order situation by instigating people against the Ahmadiyya community in the area. It is learnt that the mulla incharge of the local madrassah, committee members of the local Ahl-e-Sunnah mosque and a few others belonging to Sipah-e-Sahaba (a banned organization) are behind these activities. In the village, there is a private elementary school owned by an Ahmadi. His opponents have asked the students to procure them some Ahmadiyya pamphlets so they could use them to fabricate a complaint to the police for preaching. They have urged the parents of some students to make a statement that their children are preached Ahmadiyyat at the school. This situation has disturbed the school proprietor who is also the president of the local Ahmadiyya community. According to him the situation is getting serious by the day and might result in some unpleasant incident.
Anti-Ahmadiyya activities are rampant in Bhaun too. Provocative pamphlets were distributed here openly after the Eid prayer on September 21, 2009. It contained baseless newspaper accusations that Qadianis are not loyal to the country; 600 Qadianis are being trained in the Israeli army; and Qadianis helped the Indian army in the war against Pakistan. The pamphlet urged total boycott of Ahmadi businesses in the town. It mentioned their names as well. It bore no address. Ahmadiyya community has lived peacefully in the area for the past 50 years. The new situation has been brought to the notice of local authorities. Shah Maskeen, District Sheikhupura: The Ahmadiyya community here has faced a total boycott in the past which lasted more than two years, from September 1974 to December 1976. Now again the communal temperature is rising. Khatme Nabuwwat agitators have distributed leaflets and done wall-chalking against the community. The local Ahmadiyya community is concerned about its security, and has taken precautions to avoid any nasty incident.
The situation has been tense here for Ahmadis for a long time. Non-Ahmadis held here nominally a Milad conference in the local mosque on September 10, 2009, but their anti-Ahmadiyya intentions were no secret. Authorities were informed accordingly, well before the date. The police arrived there at the start of the conference, and stayed till the end. Mullas used abusive language against the community and its holy founder. They told Ahmadis to live like a non-Muslim minority, not to pray and not build any mosques etc. They used abusive language in the presence of the police and administration. The conference disturbed social peace of the locality.
In this area anti-Ahmadiyya activities have persisted, and small towns and villages have been affected. Khuda Abad is a small town in district Badin, Sindh. It is home to a madrassah. They held a conference there, in which people were instigated against the Ahmadiyya community. Pamphlets containing corrupted and out-of-context writings of the founder of the community were distributed in bulk. It was written on the pamphlets that one who photo-copies it and distributes it further will get great reward from God. Dr Asghar, an elderly Ahmadi, was arrested on a fabricated charge of blasphemy in June 2008. The judge rejected his plea for release on bail. The police investigation found him innocent. Subsequently his plea for bail has been rejected by the High Court and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has directed his expeditious trial which is now in progress. According to the latest information, his latest date for appearance before the Sessions Court was October 20, 2009; however no proceedings took place on that date. The fresh date given is November 7, 2009. Dr Asghar has been in prison now for almost a year and half for a crime he would never even consider committing. No bail, either. A queer system of justice! The daily Express, Faisalabad of October 25, 2009 filed the following story:
The daily Din, Lahore reported the following concerning the quality of service in Rabwah of the denationalized telephone company PTCL:
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