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 at him outside his house in Kamra town of Attock district, killing him on the spot, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Pakistan’s spokesperson Saleem ud Din said.

Din added:

“The incident represented a continuation of religiously motivated violence against Ahmadis. Ahmadis are constantly on the receiving end of vicious threats and edicts of death. They are told that unless they turn away from their beliefs they will face persecution,”

He demanded that the government should ban distribution of hate materials against Ahmadiyyas to stop such incidents.

Local police also confirmed the incident, adding that Butt was 62.

“The victim’s son filed an application here at the police station today,” local police official Qasim Ali told news agency AFP.

“According to his son’s account, the victim owned a stationery shop in Saddar market and was returning home from his shop during the incident.”

Last month, a 50-year-old doctor from the minority community was gunned down at his clinic in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

Ahmadis are among the most persecuted minorities in Pakistan. They consider themselves Muslim but were declared non-Muslims through a constitutional amendment in 1974. A decade later, they were barred from proselytising or identifying themselves as Muslims.