Ahmadi man murdered in Narowal

PAKISTAN PUNJAB

Ahmadi man murdered in Narowal

By Abdul Manan
June 01, 2010

LAHORE: A 55 year old Ahmadi man, Naimatullah Ahmad, was stabbed to death and his son Mansoor Ahmad seriously injured on Monday morning in Qila Ahmadabad, Narowal, a local police official told The Express Tribune.

Inspector Riaz of Qila Ahmadabad Police Station said that 29 year old Abid Butt, entered Naimatullah’s house by climbing a side wall adding that Butt has been arrested and a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against him.

“Preliminary investigations show that Butt has extremist views and belongs to the Tablighi Jamat and usually went on three to 40 day religious camps,” Riaz said.

Butt had confessed to Riaz that he had been told that Ahmadis were “Wajib-ul-Qatal” (ordained to be killed) and that he was following the teachings of Islam.

“Butt is basically your typical fanatic. His family, however, seem normal,” Riaz claimed.

Mansoor, the deceased’s son was rushed to Mayo Hospital for further treatment.

Hospital officials told The Express Tribune that Mansoor had suffered serious knife injuries to his head and belly. They said that his operation was a success and that he will soon recover.

Local social activist Sadiq Jutt told The Express Tribune that three families of the Ahmadiyya community lived in Qila Ahmadabad and seven families lived in Behlool Pur village.

“Butt had been threatening the deceased for the last six months and often asked the deceased to embrace Islam or face the consequences,” Jutt said.

“Butt had claimed some months ago that he would convert all three Ahmadi families living in Qila Ahmadabad to Islam,” Jutt added.

A female visitor of Mansoor’s informed The Express Tribune that the deceased and his son were sleeping in the lawn of the house when they were attacked.

“Butt first yelled as he entered and asked Naimatullah and his son to recite the Kalma and stabbed them without any warning,” she said

Ahmadiyya community spokesman Saleemuddin told The Express Tribune that the “Punjab government has failed to provide them security in the province. He said that after the massacre of the Ahmadiyya community on May 28 at Lahore, extremists have started targeting innocent Ahmadis.”

He said that according to their information, Butt had offered his Friday prayers in a Faisalabad mosque where the sermon delivered by the local cleric was against the Ahmadiyya community.

The cleric in his sermon insisted that they were Wajib-ul-Qatal.

“Naimatullah’s murder was the result of hateful speeches against the Ahmadiyya community,” Saleemuddin said.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 1st, 2010.

URL: http://tribune.com.pk/story/17757/ahmadi-man-murdered-in-narowal/

Govt silence sounds death knell for Faisalabad Ahmedis

---Daily Dawn, Pakistan

FROM THE PAPER > FRONT PAGE

Govt silence sounds death knell for Faisalabad Ahmedis
  By Nasir Jamal
  Saturday, 17 Apr, 2010

LAHORE, April 16: It is no longer just a doorbell for Mohammad Iqbal and his family; instead it has a ring of alarm about it. As a boy goes to answer the call the other inhabitants form a line of defence behind him should the visitor turn out to be an unwelcome one. Usually the door stays shut until the visitor’s identity is established and his intent known.

It’s been like this since March 8 when four men kidnapped Iqbal’s teenage son Bilal and nephew Shiraz from Iqbal’s home in Madina Town, a middle class locality in Faisalabad, after robbing the household. The kidnappers told the boys later that their family had been targeted because of their Ahmedi faith.

The boys returned home after six days once Iqbal and his elder brother paid Rs2.5 million against an original ransom demand of Rs10 million. The kidnappers have since been arrested, but the life of Iqbal’s family stands totally transformed. The structure of the house has been altered to make it more secure; as this writer sat with the family members in their living room last Thursday, on the table in front lay a revolver and a handgun.

There are many Ahmedi families in Faisalabad who share Iqbal’s insecurities. They have been terrorised by multiple robberies and kidnappings in recent months. The triple murder of the city’s known businessman Ashraf Pervaiz, his brother Masood Javed and nephew Asif Masood on April 1 intensified this terror. The murders took place in a crowded area: yet no eyewitness has come forward so far.

Though there is no evidence, the murdered victims’ family suspects it to be the work of a militant group known for its involvement in the Kashmir ‘jehad’. “Our family is respected and we have no dispute with anyone. The murderers were trained in the use of arms and were well informed about the movement of their target,” a relative of the murdered businessmen, who does not give his name, tells Dawn. Dr Rashid Karim is a homoeopath who was kidnapped last May, taken to the tribal areas, and released after more than five months on payment of Rs10 million. He says his kidnappers had tried to grill him about Ashraf Pervaiz.

The community’s suspicion about the involvement of a militant outfit and its affiliates in the recent robberies, murders and kidnappings is strengthened by the arrest of the four abductors of Iqbal’s son and nephew.

“The triple murder happened only three days after the police apprehended the accused involved in the incident at Iqbal’s home,” DSP Abid Hussain says. “All of them have said they belong to the Jama’at-ud-Da’awa,” he says.

The accused have confessed that they had obtained a decree from a cleric, Maulvi Usman, allowing robbing and killing Ahmedis. Abid says such people distribute a portion of the looted money.

Yet the Ahmedi community in Faisalabad does not just fear the militant group. “It could be a cleric or a known religious group fomenting hatred against our people for no reason or a militant outfit kidnapping or murdering our people for money. It could also be a local resident or some one from Pakhtunkhwa or Karachi or anywhere else,” says a district-level leader of the Ahmedi community, who did not want to give his name.

“They use mosques and universities to spread malicious propaganda against us. We are scared. Some have already moved out of the city.”

Nonetheless, in certain cases Ahmedis have been targeted for financial considerations. Consider a four-page pamphlet urging Muslims to sever all economic ties with Ahmedis. The pamphlet lists 33 businesses – ranging from a photocopier to a drugs store to a jeweller – being run by Ahmedis. The businesses owned by Ashraf Pervaiz’s family are also mentioned in it.

A large number of Ahmedis in Fasialabad say they have received threatening letters, ‘advising’ them to renounce their faith, before their homes are raided or relatives abducted. “I received a letter about four months before the kidnapping,” says Iqbal. His brother-in-law also got a letter.

The victims say the robbers and the kidnappers have the details about the daily routine of their targets and about their businesses. Probably this is why police officials have advised Ahmedis to change their daily routine. Most of them heeded the advice seriously. But that too didn’t help some, as the April 1 murders show.

The community leaders link the increasing attacks and crimes to official apathy and police inaction. “All this started in 2008 when some people falsely accused 23 Ahmedi students of the Punjab Medical College (PMC) of blasphemy. Under the pressure of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), the government and the college administration expelled the accused students. An emboldened SSP used the incident to foment hatred against Ahmedis in the city. Had the government not given in to the SSP the situation today would not have been as bad as it is,” an anonymous community leader argues. He says the PMC incident was followed by the murder of an Ahmedi trader. “A spate of robberies and kidnappings ensued,” he adds.

A major complaint is that none of the cases involving Ahmedis as victims is investigated properly. “The laws and police are the handmaiden of our persecutors,” says an Ahmedi. “Politicians are afraid. A family loses three members and there is not a single word from the chief minister or any other official. Where is Shahbaz Sharif, the self-proclaimed torch-bearer of justice? We deserve to be treated like other citizens but neither the police nor the judiciary is ready to provide us justice.”

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved
URL : www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-cont...ll-for-faisalabad-ahmedis-7400

A community harried by threats

---Daily Dawn, Pakistan

THE NEWSPAPER > NATIONAL

A community harried by threats

Wednesday, 14 Apr, 2010

FAISALABAD: The fresh wave of heinous crime believed to be perpetrated by a certain religious outfit against a number of Ahmedi families in Faisalabad has forced the latter to move to “safer places.”

The families facing robbery, kidnap for ransom and killing incidents are having sleepless nights more so because of alleged police failure to protect them.

The recent murder of Arshad, Asif and Masood has frightened the community many members of which have gone into hiding. Some of them have accused the police of gross negligence in their case as they say the officials were well informed that the victims (deceased) were on the hit-list of the outlawed organisation.

On April 2 last, assailants shot dead three men after which the police provided constables to the grieved family to allay their fear of any further crime against them.

A member of the community, who talked to Dawn on the condition of anonymity, said the police summoned the notables among them a week before the killing of Dr Arshad and informed them that “some unscrupulous elements are hell-bent on targeting the Ahmedis”. He quoted the police as even saying that the kidnappers of Dr Arshad had been gleaning information about him (Arshad) and his family.

Following the police officials instructions, he said, most of the community people restricted their movement and started adopting other tactics like route-changing but the worst came to pass.

Refusing to give information about the number of Ahmedi families in Faisalabad, he contended it would be injudicious to speak on any such issue amid threats of barbaric activities against them.

Earlier on March 9, some men in the guise of robbers kidnapped two boys of an Ahmedi family — Bilal, son of Iqbal, and his cousin Sheraz — from Madina Town’s Y-Block. They also bagged cash and gold ornaments and released the boys after getting Rs2.5 million ransom. It is alleged that the suspects fled with money in the presence of the police.

Sources said the CIA police arrested the kidnappers who, during preliminary investigation, confessed to having their links with the banned religious outfit. They would not share any further information with the media.

Sources said five activists, including ringleader Ansar, of the group in question had been taken into custody.

A notable of the community said the triple murder might be the act of retaliation of the arrest of some activists who carried a series of crime against Ahmedi people. He criticised the police for their negligence, though had a word of praise for the CIA officials who apprehended the criminals.

He said a police picket close to the murder scene was unusually missing on that day before which the officials had been routinely standing there. He said some police officials claimed there was a picket as usual, although many others contradicted the view.

Another member of the community, a trader of Rail Bazaar, said Arshad was former president of a market association. Regrettably, he said, the trade association neither went on strike nor did it utter a word of condemnation. He said some trade body leaders believed any reaction to the issue would be given a false colouring.

He said the community was being targeted by some elements for the last couple of years; two years ago, the children of about two dozen families were shown the door of the Punjab Medical College (PMC) on blasphemy charges. On June 5, 2008, twenty-three students of the PMC were charged with tearing a poster inscribed with religious precepts pasted at the college hostel.

Yet another member of the community said a sense of insecurity had disturbed them, particularly the businessmen. The families under threat were contemplating migration to places that could provide them a better living, he said.

He said a delegation of Ahmedis called on Regional Police Officer Muhammad Tahir a couple of days ago and conveyed their concerns to him. The RPO, he said, placated them by saying that the law enforcers were making efforts to net the criminals.

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved

URL : www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content...rried-by-threats-440

Slain Ahmadis had sought police protection

--Dawn.com, Pakistan

The Newspaper > National

Slain Ahmadis had sought police protection
Saturday, 03 Apr, 2010

FAISALABAD: Three people of an Ahmadi family gunned down near Abdullahpur in People’s Colony police precincts on Thursday night were being threatened by unidentified people because of their religious activities, it’s learnt on Friday.

Sources said that victims Asif, Arshad and Masood contacted People’s Colony police in view of the threats a couple of weeks ago and the police advised them to limit their movement and hire guards for their security.

A police official said police were informed that some unknown people, who kidnapped Dr Arshad Karim of Mustafabad, repeatedly questioned him about the movement of Asif and Arshad. He said police talked to Arshad and Asif and came to know that they feared their kidnapping.

Dr Karim was freed one month after his abduction when his family paid Rs3 million ransom. He was kidnapped from the surroundings of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education on Jail Road.

Madina Town Police Officer Sadiq Dogar said a case had been registered against five unidentified persons under sections 148, 149 and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act was being added to the FIR. He said raids were being conducted to arrest the suspects.

On March 9, some robbers kidnapped two boys of an Ahmadi family in Madina Town’s Y-Block and took away cash and gold ornaments from the house. They freed the boys, Bilal and Sheraz, after extorting Rs2.5 million from their family.

A police official said Lashkar-i-Taiba men could be behind the kidnappings. — Staff Correspondent

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved
URL : www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-...ht-police-protection-340