Armed extremist groups (TLP) hunt down Ahmadis in Pakistan
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has received numerous reports of the presence of ‘squads’ of armed extremists of the LTTE in the Khanpur area engaged in hunting down Ahmadis in the so-called ‘Operation Cleanse Pakistan’. Several Ahmadi families are hiding in their homes, fearing for their lives.
Since the evening of 22 September, Tehreek e Labbaik extremists and other fanatical clerics have gathered in front of the Islamia Park mosque of the Ahmadi Muslims in Lahore. The extremist clerics have besieged the Ahmadiyya mosque claiming that it violates the law, and demanding its closure. The police are said to have stood idly by in the face of the assault, as the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community said in an official statement.
These developments follow incitement by Sunni cleric Maulvi Manzoor Mengal, who ordered devout Muslims to kill Ahmadis as ‘apostates’, according to the Ahmadis.
TLP death squad spreading fear and roaming around with impunity. pic.twitter.com/TXrW0Y8qmB
— Ahmad (@ahmadinlondon) September 24, 2024
Pakistan's political authorities have failed to crack down on this dangerous hate speech and the result is an escalation of violence as represented by the Khanpur mobs.
‘Pakistan's Ahmadis face unprecedented threats, fuelled by unlawful hate speech that the government has an obligation to oppose,’ said the IHRC (International Human Rights Committee) representative. ‘We urgently call for support to defuse what could be an imminent massacre,’ he said.
‘The intense verbal and physical violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan is an existential threat to millions of peaceful Pakistanis, who are loyal and law-abiding citizens,’ said the IHRC representative.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community calls on the international community to condemn the violence of religious extremists in Pakistan. Otherwise these hate crimes will spread to other countries. Such processions have already started in Germany and the UK, as denounced by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Part 2 pic.twitter.com/ZM4pKGzb9p
— Ahmad (@ahmadinlondon) September 10, 2024
Such acts of violence and targeted attacks are contrary to international norms and values relating to freedom of religion and belief, as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on freedom of religion, and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Pakistan in 2008, the Ahmadiyya Community points out.
Three other UN human rights treaties, as well as numerous General Assembly resolutions and Human Rights Committee clarifications, prohibit religious discrimination. These hate crimes that go viral on social media and in videos also violate Pakistan's own National Action Plan, as well as recently enacted cybercrime laws, because they fuel animosity, discrimination and persecution against members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Pakistan, the Ahmadis allege.
However, Pakistani authorities, who continue to file frivolous cases against Ahmadi Muslims under the anti-Ahmadi blasphemy and anti-cybercrime laws, turn a blind eye to systematic efforts across the country by Islamic extremists to stir up hatred and ignite violence against Ahmadi Muslims. Instead of prosecuting these extremists under cybercrime laws and the National Action Plan, government authorities continue to protect and support extremists and target innocent Ahmadis, as denounced by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in an official statement.
Part 2 pic.twitter.com/ZM4pKGzb9p
— Ahmad (@ahmadinlondon) September 10, 2024
In July 2024, leading UN human rights experts and UN Special Rapporteurs urged ‘an immediate end to discrimination and violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan’, citing documented evidence of ‘extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, attacks on places of worship, and restrictions on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association’. Its recommendations appear to have fallen on deaf ears, according to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
The Ahmadiyya Community therefore calls on the Pakistani authorities to honour their international human rights commitments and to protect religious freedom and promote religious tolerance towards the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Ahmadis respectfully request all members of the international community to urge the Government of Pakistan to take urgent steps to bring its laws and practices in line with international standards, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
