Pakistan: A Two Week Escalation Against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

CAP Freedom of Conscience Geneva, 22 September 2026

Between a shooting in Sargodha, a public campaign of hatred and a landmark court ruling, the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan is facing a sudden and dangerous escalation. CAP Freedom of Conscience calls on the Pakistani authorities to protect the community, to end impunity, and to restore respect for freedom of religion or belief.

A father and son shot in Sargodha

On the evening of Saturday 19 September 2026, Malik Mahmood Mubarak, 70, and his son Ayaz Mubarak, 40, were returning home in their vehicle in Sargodha, in the Punjab province, when two unidentified men on a motorcycle without a registration plate opened fire on them. According to the police report registered the next day at the Sajid Shaheed police station, three shots were fired at around 7:40 PM near the family’s home in the Punjab Colony area. The father and son were both injured and survived the attack. The attackers fled. The case was registered under Sections 324 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

This was not an isolated event. On 2 September 2026, Mirza Safdar Mahmood, a 65 year old respected community official, was shot and killed near Kot Ahmad Shah in the district of Mandi Bahauddin while on his way to an Ahmadi place of worship. Local media report that Sargodha has recently seen a rise in hate speech against the community.

Banners calling for hatred and boycott

At the start of September, banners carrying derogatory messages against Ahmadis were displayed along Main University Road in Sargodha, about 200 kilometres from Lahore. According to the Press Trust of India, the banners called for the social boycott and exclusion of Ahmadis, described them as disloyal to Pakistan, and demanded their removal from key positions. One banner read: We hate Qadianiyat. Hateful stickers were also reported at a petrol station in Lahore.

The Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan condemned the display and called for the immediate removal of the banners, for the identification of those responsible, and for legal action against them, recalling that spreading hatred against individuals or communities on the basis of their beliefs is a violation of the law.

A court ruling that seals the suppression of religious literature

On 8 September 2026, the Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan upheld the ban on the Rohani Khazayeen, the 23 volumes of writings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya community. A division bench headed by Justice Aamer Farooq and comprising Justice Syed Arshad Hussain Shah dismissed the petitions in the case of Muhammad Abdul Qadoos and connected petitioners against the Province of Punjab.

The ban originates in a notification issued by the Punjab Home Department on 25 June 2014 under Section 99 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Section 19 of the Press, Newspapers, News Agencies and Books Registration Ordinance of 2002. All copies of the 23 volumes were ordered forfeited after an Ulema board recommended the measure, considering that the writings could cause hatred among Muslims. The petitioners argued that the ban violated Article 20 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom to profess, practise and propagate religion.

The Court held that religious freedom is subject to law, public policy and morality. It found that the petitioners had failed to place the material before the Court through the appropriate remedies and described their religious freedom claim as an afterthought. The judgment concludes that there was no violation of the fundamental rights of the petitioners in the facts and circumstances, and it refused leave to appeal. As a result, members of the community cannot print, publish or circulate one of their central religious texts.

United Nations experts sound the alarm

On 7 September 2026, United Nations human rights experts expressed grave concern over continuing reports of discrimination, violence and legal restrictions targeting the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan. They cited attacks on places of worship, the desecration of graves, interference with religious observance during Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha, arrests and prosecutions linked to religious practices, and hate speech. They called on Pakistan to break the pattern of impunity and stressed that these attacks take place with tacit official complicity.

The position of CAP Freedom of Conscience

These events are not separate incidents. They form a continuum in which public incitement, violence and judicial decisions reinforce one another. Pakistan’s Parliament declared Ahmadis to be non Muslims in 1974, and a decade later barred them from calling themselves Muslims. The present ruling extends this logic to the community’s foundational writings themselves.

CAP Freedom of Conscience recalls that freedom of religion or belief includes the freedom to have, print and share religious texts, and that incitement to hatred and social boycott is not protected speech. We call on the Pakistani authorities to protect the Ahmadiyya community, to investigate the attacks promptly and impartially, to prosecute those responsible, and to bring its legislation in line with its international human rights obligations. Pakistan must break the cycle of fear and allow all religious communities to live in safety and dignity.

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