In another case of persecution of the Ahmadi community in Pakistan, the police in the Punjab province on Saturday demolished the minarets of a worship place of the community following threats from a radical Islamist party, said officials on Saturday.
According to a government official, the police had asked the Ahmadi leaders in the area to demolish the minarets as it was illegal to build them and threatened to demolish the place, PTI reported.
This came after the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party had warned the police to destroy the minarets of the Ahmadis worship place in Punjab province's Jhelum district or they would attack it.
"Police summoned the Ahmadi leaders of the area and asked them to demolish the minarets of their worship place as they could not build them under law or they would themselves demolish the place," said the official. The worship place was raided and demolished on Friday.
In response to the demolition, Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan Punjab official Amir Mahmood alleged a campaign was launched by the TLP against Ahmadi worship places, and condemned the police action to demolish the minarets.
He accused TLP leader Asim Ashfaq Rizvi of threatening to attack the Ahmadi worship places in Jhelum if the police did not destroy them by the occasion of Muharram.
"Instead of protecting the Ahmadis, the police brought down the minarets of the Ahmadis' place of worship to please the hate mongers and extremist elements.This situation is unfortunate and a clear violation of the rights of the Ahmadi community," said Mahmood.
The formation of special police force was ordered by a three-member bench headed by then Chief Justice of Pakistan Tasadduq Hussain Jilani in 2014 for the protection of minority communities.
Ahmadi community in Pakistan
The Ahmadiyya community is one of the vulnerable communities in Pakistan and are often targeted by religious extremists. This is mainly due to their different beliefs, for which they are not considered as part of Islam.
In former Pakistan President Zia-ul-Haq's regime, it was a punishable offence for the Ahmadis to call themselves as Muslims or as part of Islam. The Zulfikar Ali Bhutto government in 1974 officially declared the Ahmadi community as non-Muslims.
Ahmadis are also banned from preaching and banned from pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) noted an alarming surge in attacks against the Ahmadi community members in Punjab province, including persecution by civil administration in several districts.
The demolition of minarets is a common part of vandalism and desecration of Ahmadi worship places.
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