New Delhi: An Ahmadi mosque, built by Pakistan’s first foreign minister, Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, has been demolished under the watch of the Maryam Nawaz-led Punjab government. The incident has sparked widespread outrage, with many Pakistanis blaming such “religious tyranny” for their “humiliation and downfall.”
“How can a nation progress when its citizens are deprived of religious freedom?”, they ask.
Sir Zafarullah Khan, an Ahmadi himself, was a key member of the All-India Muslim League and remained Pakistan’s leading diplomat till 1954. The mosque, which held historic significance and was built before the Partition, was razed on 16 January because an extension of the structure was “illegal”. However, some activists, lawyers and journalists claim that it was destroyed due to its association with the Ahmadi community.
Journalist reporting minority issues, Arshad Yousafzai told ThePrint that the demolition was carried out by the district administration in Daska, with police and government officials present.
“Despite a clear ruling by the Lahore High Court stating that Ahmadi mosques built before 1984 cannot be altered, this decision was blatantly ignored. The contributions of figures like Sir Zafarullah Khan from the Ahmadi community are deliberately erased. Whether it’s Dr Abdus Salam or military officers who sacrificed their lives in Kashmir, their names are absent from national observances,” Yousafazai said. In Daska, he added, the demolition was led by the Deputy Commissioner “under the guise of removing encroachments”.
Notices were served to the residents. But according to Yousafzai, this raises an important question: Would a mosque built shortly after the creation of Pakistan—by a former President of the All India Muslim League—be constructed on encroached land? The answer, he stressed, is a firm “no”.
According to Ahmadi community members Yousafzai spoke to, when the notice was issued, they accepted the government’s claim and agreed to demolish the portion identified as an encroachment. The authorities marked the area within the mosque, and the community even built another structure inside the mosque to preserve the rest of it, he said.
However, when the authorities arrived, a group of people from Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a far-Right Islamist political outfit in Pakistan, gathered around them and began shouting slogans. Instead of removing only the marked section, the authorities proceeded to bulldoze the entire mosque as the extremists cheered and celebrated.
X user Mona Farooq Ahmad questioned CM Maryam Nawaz, asking if this was the “prosperous Punjab she envisioned”. She wrote: “Pakistan’s relentless obsession with persecuting Ahmadis—destroying their places of worship, desecrating their graves, & denying them basic rights—continues unchecked.”
Pakistan’s treatment of its religious minorities, particularly Ahmadis, has long been a source of international criticism. Ahmadis are not recognised as Muslims by the state, and any attempt to assert their Islamic identity is punishable under draconian blasphemy laws.
According to Pakistani advocate Shafiq Ahmad, “Just in Punjab in the year 2024, at least 22 Ahmadi worship places were demolished.”
‘Living hell for minorities’
The destruction of the Ahmadi mosque in Daska has incited widespread anger across Pakistan. As visuals of the demolished mosque circulate on social media, many Pakistanis are reflecting on its broader implications for the nation’s future.
“The demolition of the Ahmadi worship place in Daska is a grave violation of constitutional protections and an alarming escalation of intolerance toward marginalised communities in Pakistan. Targeting a place of worship is an attack not only on religious freedoms but also on the fundamental principles of equality and coexistence”, Moniza Kakar, a prominent Pashtun activist, told ThePrint.
Anwar Sadat, a human rights activist from Waziristan, agreed.
“Ahmadis are considered by Islamic extremists in Pakistan as their worst enemy, and the Pakistani government sponsors these extremists to suppress them. This impunity increases the morale of religious extremists,” he said.
Yousafzai emphasised that Pakistan is becoming a “living hell” for minorities. “Extremist groups such as TLP, Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a (ASWJ) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) roam freely, doing whatever they please with impunity. The state has not only failed to protect its minorities but has, in many cases, enabled their suffering.”
Mona Farooq Ahmad, an Ahmadi human rights activist with close ties with Sir Zafarullah’s family told ThePrint that this is not the first time.
“Last year, TLP mobilised plans to demolish this historic place of worship, but their efforts were thwarted by a Lahore High Court ruling that prohibits the destruction of such structures. Frustrated by their failure, they turned their aggression toward the Ahmadi cemetery in Daska,” she said, “The Assistant Commissioner and police cordoned off the area, desecrated graves, destroyed 74 tombstones, and even removed the debris to appease extremist demands. This year, those same forces returned, this time not only targeting the mosque’s minarets but demolishing the entire building. Such acts reflect the dangerous trajectory of Ahmadi persecution, which has escalated significantly in the last two years, with a spree of mosque demolitions and graveyard desecrations”
The demolition of Ahmadi mosque in Daska is a living example of the state and its right-hand’s violence carried against the Ahmadiyya Community. The authorities and those in power have always been unsuccessful in protecting their citizens. These violent attacks will continue to occur if these issues and state protection is not provided to minorities.
Let us not forget,that the Sunni Muslim tyranny continues in Bangladesh and Pakistan against all minorities including shia muslims, let us also remember that while shias wanted Pakistan, it was the Sunnis who indulged in massacre of Hindus and Sikhs during partition
The Ahmadis and the Shias are the ones responsible for the creation of Pakistan. They were the ones who spewed venom on the Hindus and Sikhs and declared that the Muslim cannot live in a Hindu majority nation – the very basis for their demand of Partition.
Turns out Indian Shia Muslims and Ahmadis are doing really well in independent India. These two communities have taken advantage of modern secular education and progressed rapidly. They hardly face any discrimination in India.
But the nation they created for their fellow Muslim brethren treats them like outcastes.
Maybe they should introspect now and accept the grave mistakes they made in the pre-1947 era.
The Shias and the Ahmadis were the ones who led the Pakistan Movement. These two communities, relatively progressive and liberal when compared to Sunnis, took advantage of Western education and made rapid strides on the economic and social ladder during the pre-Partition era.
The idea of creating a separate homeland for Indian Muslims was propagated and led by these two communities. They provided the intellectual and political heft to the Pakistan Movement. The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was the centre of the Movement and was just as responsible for the partition of India. Though nowadays AMU students self-certify themselves as patriots (what a joke!).
Now that the Sunni Muslims are hounding the very same Shias and Ahmadis, life seems to have come a full circle. Every other day there are violent clashes resulting in substantial casualties to the Shia population. The Ahmadis have been declared as non-believers (Kafir) and hide their religious identity in public. Both Shias and Ahmadis have been subjected to state-sponsored persecution by radical Sunni clergymen and their lackeys.
This is poetic justice. Allah has seen their deeds and judged accordingly. Glory to him!