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Asia

Ahmadi Muslims arrive in India for 123rd annual convention

The three-day annual international conference of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community began today at its headquarters in Qadian town of Indian Punjab, with the participation of more than 17,000 delegates from all over the world including 6,000 from Pakistan. The first batch of delegates from Pakistan arrived in Qadian through different buses via Wagah border on December 17th. The Indian government has granted visas to 6,000 Pakistani delegates to take part in the conference. Sayed Tanveer Amhad, External Affairs Secretary and …

Christian couple burnt alive in Pakistan for alleged blasphemy

A Christian couple in Pakistan have been beaten to death by an angry crowd after being accused of desecrating a Koran, police say. Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi, a married couple with four children, were beaten and then burnt alive in a brick kiln where they worked yesterday (4 November) after they were accused of desecrating the Quran by a co-worker. According to the Pakistan Christian Post, mosque loudspeakers in Kot Rada Kishan, Kasur district of Punjab, …

Destroying Pakistan: The curse of the blasphemy law

Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which turns 30 this year, has become only more deadly with age. Since blasphemy was made a capital crime under the nation’s secular penal code, the effect has been to suppress moderate influences, pushing “Pakistani society further out on the slippery slope of extremism,” said Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, senior advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in Washington last week. With its large population and sensitive location, Pakistan is a place where any societal shift in the direction of …

Islamic extremists to hold Khatme Nabuwat conference in Rabwah

Residents of Rabwah have self-secured themselves as the general population plans for the approaching 33th International Khatme Nabuwat conference to be held in the region of Rabwah on 6th September 2014. Posters publicizing the get-together have been plastered all over from Chiniot to Chenab Nagar (Rabwah). Individuals from all over Pakistan have started arriving in the adjacent city of Chiniot, the same city in April 2009 renamed its town centre from Tehsil Chowk to “Khatme Nabuwat Chowk”.

Ahmadiyya Muslims holding rally in Saskatoon to condemn Ottawa shooting

Muslim group Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at among many which have condemned the Ottawa shootings Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Canada issued a statement saying the group “categorically and unequivocally condemns” the attacks in Ottawa and Quebec. In a statement announcing the rally, the group said the goal of the rally is to “stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow Canadians and categorically and unequivocally condemn radicalization and all acts of terror.” The rally is set for 2 to 3 p.m. CST at Saskatoon City …

Pakistan’s Ahmadis Faced with Death or Exile

Two years ago, gunmen shot dead Farooq Kahloun’s newly married son Saad Farooq, 26, in an attack that severely injured Kahloun, his younger son Ummad, and Saad’s father-in-law, Choudhry Nusrat. Saad died on the spot. In Pakistan after travelling from his home in New York for the wedding, Nusrat died in hospital later. Four bullets remain in Kahloun’s chest and arm. A bullet lodged behind the right eye of Ummad, a student in the UK, was surgically removed months later.

Retired Pakistan Air Force official gunned down for being Ahmadi

An ex-serviceman of Pakistan Air Force from the minority Ahmadiyya community has been gunned down outside his house by unidentified gunmen in Punjab province, the latest targeted attack on the minority religious group facing persecution in the country. The incident took place in Kamra, Attock district, around 64 kilometres north of the capital Islamabad on Wednesday, a spokesman for the community said. The 62-year-old ex-serviceman, Latif Aalam Butt, was returning home from his stationery store yesterday when unidentified attackers fired …

Imran Khan backs off statement that he will make Ahmadi economist his Finance Minister

Pakistan’s cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan last night backtracked over his support for the Ahmadi economist Atif Mian after receiving serious backlash from Islamist Clerics. Since August 15th Mr Khan has been leading a sit-in demonstration against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad. On September 13th while addressing the protest he announced that after coming into power, he would never compromise on merit and have people like Professor Atif Mian as his finance minister rather than appointing a relative like Nawaz Sharif’s Samdhi (daughter’s …

Ahmadiyya in Rabwah living under constant threat to their Lives

Pakistan’s constitution was amended 40 years ago to declare Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. Regarded by orthodox Muslims as heretical, Ahmadis are not allowed to refer to their places of worship as mosques or to publicly quote from the Koran – acts punishable by imprisonment of up to three years. Critics of the anti-Ahmadi laws say they have encouraged violence against the community. Residents of the all-Ahmadi town of Rabwah told BBC Urdu’s Nosheen Abbas of their fears for the future. …

Pakistani mob attacks Ahmadiyya Mosque in Okara

In the latest instance of anti-ahmadiyya mob violence sweeping Pakistan a mob of men and school children attacked an Ahmadiyya mosque in Okara, Pakistan, on Wednesday. Police officers present at the scene watched on as the crowd of angry men started hurling stones & bricks at the mosque after their forceful takeover of the Mosque failed.

Ahmadi doctor gunned down in southern Pakistan

Gunmen in southern Pakistan shot dead 50-year-old doctor from Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Muslim minority at his clinic in the latest attack on one of the country’s most persecuted groups. The assailants stormed Mubashar Ahmad Khosa’s clinic in the city of Mirpur Khas on Monday evening and opened fire on him before fleeing the spot on a motorbike. Zafarullah Dharejo, a senior local police official, added that a third attacker kept watch outside.