The opposition of the Ahmadiyya Community is an all-time high in Karachi these days. While appearing as a Council in a case against the Ahmadiyya Community an Ahmadi Lawyer namely Syed Ali Ahmad Tariq was booked on Monday 21.11.2022 by Karachi Police under the Country’s anti-Ahmadiyya laws, section 298-B & 298-C of PPC, for using ‘Syed’ as a prefix. The said case has been registered at Karachi City Court police station.
The registration of the said FIR is serving as a measure of the rising religious extremism in Pakistan. Now as per the current situation the tolerance is at such a level that names of Ahmadis are being used to persecute them. Life for Ahmadis is deliberately being made difficult.
The Community had been deprived of basic, fundamental rights. And as of now it appears that Ahmadis would not be permitted to keep names of their choice. The basic complaint made by the opponents in the recent past with regards to Karachi in particular, is that the Places of Worship of the Ahmadiyya Community are similar to that of the Orthodox Muslims and through this they are hurting the sentiments of the innocent Muslims.
In regards to that a case of Section 298-B & 298-C has been registered against the Ahmadiyya Place of Worship Martin Road, Karachi under FIR No. 527/22 on 26.09.2022 and the basic complaint in the case was that the Ahmadiyya Place of Worship has Minarets similar to that of the Muslim mosque and this is a thing that misleads the Muslim and is hurting the sentiments of the Muslims which is not acceptable at all because according to the Anti-Ahmadiyya Laws and the Constitution of Pakistan the Ahmadiyya Community cannot use the Islamic rituals and terminologies in any way and if they do, they are in in violation of the Constitution of Pakistan.
This is yet another example of rising tide of extremism and intolerance against the Ahmadiyya community and using Ahmadi’s as sacrificial beings for creating disharmony and division in society for cheap political gain.
This has to be stopped at all costs and nipped in the bud to stop the perpetrators and brought to justice immediately. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution as the government and authorities encourage this behaviour. They must be stopped and discouraged from using cheap tactics to achieve political gain.
We call upon the international community and human rights groups to call out this injustice against Ahmadis in Pakistan and urge the media and government to immediately cease the spread of hate speech in the country which is endangering countless innocent lives.
On July 13, 2021, UN human rights experts expressed their deep concern over the lack of attention to the serious human rights violations perpetrated against the Ahmadiyya community around the world and called on the international community to step up efforts in bringing an end to the ongoing persecution of Ahmadis.
We once again strongly urge the international community to impress upon the Government of Pakistan to discharge any absurd cases against Ahmadis and release all held in custody and thus honour its responsibility to provide effective protection and freedom of religious practice to Ahmadis and that perpetrators of such vicious actions should be brought to justice, to bring its laws and practices in conformity with international standards as ordained by Article 20 and United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 2, 18 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 25, 26.
Source IHRC www.hrcommittee.org
More information
UK Home Office Country Policy and Information Note Pakistan Ahmadis
UN three SRs joint statement issued on Ahmadiyya Persecution worldwide issued on 13 July 2021
USCIRF 2021 Ahmadiyya Persecution Factsheet
CAP LC HRC Written statement International community must pay attention to the state- sponsored persecution of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan and worldwide
Submission 42th UPR Session PAKISTAN Jan – Feb 2023 Persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan
