Lahore, Dec 12 (PTI) Pakistan Police, allegedly at the behest of some clerics, have demolished two minarets of a place of worship of the minority Ahmadi community in Punjab province.
According to the representatives of the Ahmadi community, a heavy contingent of police cordoned off the Gujranwala’s Baghbanpura area, some 80 kms from Lahore, on December 8 and demolished the minarets of an Ahmadi place of worship.
“Police acted at the behest of local clerics who threatened to attack the Ahmadi worship place if minarets were not demolished,” Jamaat Ahmadiyya Punjab official Amir Mahmood told PTI on Monday.
Under the law in Pakistan, the Ahmadi community cannot build minarets and call their worship place a mosque.
Earlier, Ahmadis had placed steel sheets around the minarets to hide them from public view to avoid the wrath of religious extremists. However, the administration sprang into action after some local clerics, especially those belonging to Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) demanded the removal of the minarets.
“The Ahmadi community condemns the extrajudicial actions of the police. Such barbaric actions of the police officials desecrating the Ahmadiyya place of worship are not acceptable,” Mahmood said.
A couple of weeks ago, several graves of the Ahmadi community were desecrated by unknown religious extremists in Hafizabad district, some 100 kms from Lahore.
In the past also such incidents took place in other Ahmadi graveyards in Punjab but not a single culprit was arrested or put on trial.
Minorities, especially Ahmadis, are very vulnerable in Pakistan and they are often targeted by religious extremists.
The Pakistani government does not consider Ahmadis to be Muslims, and the Ahmadis are not allowed to call themselves Muslims in Pakistan by a law passed in 1974. PTI MZ PMS PMS PMS
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