Fleeing discrimination and violence, members of a Muslim sect have abandoned their homes in Pakistan to find an unlikely refuge in China. “Every day I heard the sound of guns,” said 37-year-old Saeed, who used to live in Lahore, Pakistan’s second city. “We prayed every day, because we felt something could happen to us at any time.” He is one of hundreds of people who have sought asylum in China in recent years, often from conflict and violence-stricken countries including …
An American doctor of Pakistani origin was shot dead in central Pakistan by unidentified gunmen on Monday, police said, in an attack that appears to have targeted him because he was a member of the minority Ahmadiyya religious community. Mehdi Ali Qamar, 50, from Lancaster, Ohio, had traveled to Pakistan’s Punjab Province late last week to volunteer at the Tahir Heart Institute, one of Pakistan’s most highly regarded medical clinics. At around 5 a.m. he was walking out of a cemetery with …
A spokesperson of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has categorically rejected outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s allegations about their women and children in the custody of security forces. Commenting on the factual position of the issue‚ the spokesperson clarified that not a single woman or child is in the custody of security forces. In fact‚ women and children have never been detained. The spokesperson said this baseless accusation by outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is mere a propaganda to divert the attention from the real …
A 72-year-old British doctor is in prison in Pakistan for “posing as a Muslim”, charges that reveal an escalating ideological fight that often spills over into violence. Masood Ahmad is a quiet, reserved widower who returned to Pakistan to open a pharmacy in 1982 after decades of working in London to pay his children’s school fees, his family said. He is also an Ahmadi, a sect that consider themselves Muslim but believe in a prophet after Mohammed. A 1984 Pakistani …
Being a member of an ethnic or religious minority in Pakistan brings with it inherent risks – something dramatically illustrated in Peshawar last month when a bomb attack on a church killed at least 85 people. The US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2012 notes that the 5 percent who constitute the non-Muslim population in a country of just over 190 million face persecution in many forms, including “attacks on houses of worship, religious gatherings, and religious leaders …
A fortnight ago, tens of thousands of members of the Ahmadi Muslim community gathered in the historic English market town of Alton. They were there for an annual conference. This year, the community was also marking the centenary of its presence in Britain. As far back as 1926, the Ahmadis established London’s first mosque. In countries as diverse as Canada and South Africa, there are similar events that take place throughout the year. But the one country where Ahmadis aren’t …
ISLAMABAD – Law-enforcement agencies foiled another attempt to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf and arrested seven suspects from Islamabad in the wee hours of Saturday. Officials said the suspects belonged to a banned militant organisation Lashker-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). The intelligence agencies facilitated police to arrest them. According to details, law enforcement agencies on a tip -off arrested seven militants from different areas of the federal capital.
A man was forced to abandon his woodworking business and flee Gujranwala with his family after his erstwhile friends and neighbours discovered that he was an Ahmadi. Imran Ahmed, 35, started out as a daily wager at a woodwork shop in Gujranwala. He saved up money for three years, then invested Rs100,000 in machinery and setting up his own workshop. As his business grew, he hired two carpenters to work for him. “Things were going really well, but nobody knew …
A man belonging to Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Zahoor Ahmed Kiyani, 46, was shot dead along with his Sunni neighbour Noorul Wahid in Mujahid Colony area of Orangi Town. The police officials said that the deceased was sitting outside the house with his neighbour, when at least two armed men on a motorcycle came came up-close and shot him multiple times. When the neighbour ran after the culprits to stop them from escaping, they shot him dead too.The bodies were taken …
Pakistan has seemingly ensured that no Ahmedi demographic, including the dead, are spared the harsh reminder that they do not belong “That looks very biblical,” I said out loud while approaching the place Ahmedis call their sanctuary, Rabwa. Incidentally, the name of the city was changed by the state to Chenabnagar, because Rabwa translated to ‘land of God’ and divinity and its access was prohibited for Ahmedis. I wanted to observe what is it like for them living banished in …
On July 11, the first day of Ramazan, a group of Sunnis beat up the Ahmedis and kicked them out of the Mosque, telling them not to return, according to members of the Ahmadi community. The Ahmedis filed a complaint with the police for the registration of an FIR against the assailants. The police did not register a case, nor heeded their request for protection. Instead, they sealed the Mosque, which is located on a four-marla plot, “because of concerns …
An Ahmadi SOLDIER who died fighting the Taliban in the Tirah Valley was buried in Rabwah with full military honors. Qaiser Naveed Bhatti, 24 of Chak 23 District Nankana died in a firefight with the the Taliban in Tirah Valley. His body was taken to his hometown by Captain Deedar Baig from where it was brought to Rabwah where he was buried with full military honors. Naveed Bhatti had got married three months ago. Pakistani Army has been battling Taliban …