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Ahmadiyya mosque demolished in Lodhran

Jattwala, District Lodhran: Ahmadiyya community in Jattwala, district Lodhran intended to build a place for their worship. Ali Hasan, a member of Lashkr-e-Taiba (a religious outfit banned for its terrorist activities), filed an application in the District Superintendent Police Office to stop its construction. The SHO came to the site on the order of his superiors and ordered a stop to the construction and told both the parties to report to him in the police station the next day. There, …

Independence Day Preparations

As 14th august comes close people in Rabwah, Pakistan prepare to celebrate Pakistan’s 64th Independence Day. Flags, ticker tapes and badges have been on sale for weeks now but as the big day draws near tradesmen have seen an increase in sales. The local hospital and the town’s central mosque “The Aqsa Mosque” has also been lit up to commemorate the occasion but the Government seems to be oblivious of the occasion as the local administration offices still remain plunged …

Rabwah: Appalling sanitation conditions

Last two week’s monsoon rains have brought havoc to the streets of Rabwah, the lack of proper sanitation system had the water overflowing drains and onto the streets. Many of the key roads including College Road and Sahiwal Road still remain days after the torrential rain, while many low lying streets of areas like Dar ul Aloom, Dar ul Nasar and Dar ul Rehmat seem to have completely disappeared and all you can see is pools of water and the …

Everyone in Pakistan is a ‘minority’ now

On July 11, another Ahmadi Muslim was martyred in Nawab Shah, Sindh. The killer shouted the Khatam-e-Nabawwat slogan as he shot Malik Mabroor Ahmad pointblank. This happened amidst a huge crowd and no one except the deceased’s brother chased the attacker. Malik Mabroor’s family has a long history of persecution; his late father was imprisonment in the late 80’s under Ziaul Haq’s blasphemy laws, one brother was beaten and tortured and their properties have been usurped and looted. However, this …

Funeral & Burial services held for Sahabzadi Hadhrat Nasira Begum

On Friday 29th July Sahibzadi Hadhrat Nasira Begum sahiba mother of Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad(aba) Khalifatul Masih V (current head of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community) passed away in Rabwah. May Allah award her with great place in paradise and may Allah strengthen the hands of our beloved Huzur(aba). Funeral was held on the 30th of July in Rabwah which was attended by over 20,000 people, the burial took place afterwards. All this was broadcasted live on Ahmadiyya Muslim community’s TV Channel …

Ahrar & KhatmeNabuwat movement the terrorist connection

Background of KhatmeNabuwat and Majlis e Ahrar movement. KhatmeNabuwat was founded in 1880’s for the purpose of cornering ahmadis but the main turn for the movement came in 1934 when Majlis Ahrar arranged a big gathering called Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat Conference which was led by Attaullah Shah Bukhari. The Working Committee of the Majlis-i-Ahrar disapproved of the Pakistan plan, and so did the founder of Jammat-e-Islami Moulana Modudi. One of the leaders of Majlis-e-Ahrar Maulana Mazhar Ali Azhar declared the founder of …

Ahmadiyya – A community a world apart !

Even though the annual convention of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was being held miles away in the England, the small town of Rabwah in Punjab, Pakistan didn’t seem too far off from the activities. The public in Rabwah looked like as if it was part of the bustling crowd of thousands which had gathered in the English countryside for a three day annual convention. The crowd consisted of Ambassadors, public figure’s, Ahmadi’s and guests from over 90 countries around the …

The Ahmadi Conundrum

I don’t know if it’s true or not, but my Mom says that my first word was Allah. Well this is what supposed to happen when your house is so close to the mosque and the Azaan comes out of it 5 times a day. I still remember my grandparents celebrating my aameen when I finished Quran at the age of 5. How everyone was so proud. When I started school, I was one of those kids who didn’t miss …

Pakistan’s obsession with religion

Nadeem Paracha laments about Pakistanis celebrating Islamic history outside Pakistan. (DAWN: Talking tall- July 10) Muslim thinkers of the sub-continent repeatedly drilled such pan-Islamism and Allama Iqbal fostered this ideology in these words: Aik Hoon Muslim Haram Ki Pasbani Kay Liyay Neel Kay Sahal Sey Lay Kar Tabkhake Kashgher (I am a Muslim to protect the Sacred House from the shores of Nile to Kashgher) If Pakistanis are obsessed with Islam, it comes as no surprise as history books are …

In Ahmadis’ desert city, Pakistan closes in

RABWAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – At the office of what claims to be one of Pakistan’s oldest newspapers, workers scan copy for words it is not allowed to use — words like Muslim and Islam. “The government is constantly monitoring this publication to make sure none of these words are published,” explains our guide during a visit to the offices of al Fazl, the newspaper of the Ahmadiyya sect in Pakistan. This is Rabwah, the town the Ahmadis built when they …

Ahmadis have found their own solutions in Rabwah

RABWAH: When a fire broke out at a building in Chiniot, the district administration called the rescue service in Rabwah for help. The irony that the Chiniot building was owned by a member of the Khatam-e-Nabuwwat movement is not lost to Rabwah’s rescue services. A former tae kwon do instructor with the Pakistan Army, Nadir Saidain says the fire service was started because the district administration refused to assist in rescue operations in Rabwah town. The service, like many others …

In Rabwah, every house has a story to tell

RABWAH: The tombstones in Rabwah’s graveyards tell a macabre tale. The graves of the men killed in the attacks on Ahmadi places of worship in Lahore – retired army officers and young factory workers among them – rest with the dozens killed due to the persecution of the Ahmadiyya community. The graveyards have been defiled in the past as locals have released animals in the graveyards or trod on the graves. Other tombstones in a row show how entire families …