A community marked for death

Opinion »

A community marked for death

Published on June 20, 2011

Re: “Ahmadiya people are safe in Pakistan” June 18, 2011

As a mainstream Pakistani Muslim I was shocked to read the rebuttal put forward by the Department of Consular Affairs, Embassy of Pakistan. They conveniently ignored the fact that Pakistan is the only state which has officially declared the Ahmadiya community as non-Muslims. Their freedom of religion has been curtailed through many ordinances, acts and constitutional amendments by myopic dictators like General Zia ul Haq and later right-wing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

On April 16, 1984, General Zia-ul-Haq, the former dictator (also the worst thing to have ever happened to Pakistan), issued the anti-Ahmadiya Ordinance, which effectively prohibited Ahmadis from preaching or professing their beliefs. The ordinance, which was supposed to prevent “anti-Islamic activities,” forbids Ahmadis from calling themselves Muslim or to “pose as Muslims”. This means that they are not allowed to profess the Islamic creed publicly or call their places of worship mosques.

Pray tell, where is the ‘freedom of religion’?

As a result of these black laws, which are completely against the wishes of the secular founder of the country Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Ahmadiya community, is threatened and hate-related literature is spread by fundamentalist religious groups to which Pakistan is no stranger.

Just last week a rights organisation said it feared large-scale targeted killings of Ahmadis in Faisalabad after pamphlets labelling members of the Ahmadiyya community “Wajibul Qatl” (‘liable to be murdered’), and inciting people to publicly attack followers of the faith, were openly and widely circulated in the city.

Living in denial will only worsen the already dreadful situation in the country.

Ahsan Arif Awan
Assumption University

URL: www.nationmultimedia.com/home/A-community...

Embassy should have remained silent instead of lying

Opinion »

Embassy should have remained silent instead of lying

Published on June 20, 2011

Re: “Ahmadiya people are safe in Pakistan” June 18, 2011

I understand that it is the job of embassy staff to defend their country in foreign lands. However, there should be some decency to avoid complete fabrication of truth.

The Department of Consular Affairs, Embassy of Pakistan has the audacity to claim that lives of Ahmadi Muslims is not in mortal danger, and there is no persecution at state level of the Ahmadiya Muslim community.

Nothing could be further from the truth. A simple search on Google will list reports from the US, EU, UN and Asian human rights organisations that clearly document persecution faced by Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan on a daily basis.

The embassy should try to tell about the safety in Pakistan to widows and orphans of Ahmadis who were massacred in their own mosques. What will the embassy say to the old parents who had to bury their sons killed for being an Ahmadi Muslim?

Even as I write this letter, leaflets and posters are all being distributed in Faisalabad (one of the largest cities in Pakistan) that openly encourage Pakistanis to “kill all Ahmadis” in order to receive their high station in paradise. Is this the definition of Pakistan as a safe heaven for Ahmadis?

It is the state law that declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims thus encouraging killing of Ahmadis as apostates. If this was not enough, special ordinance was passed to ensure that any act of an Ahmadi Muslim to practise his or her faith becomes blasphemous in the eyes of the law.

In a country where a provincial governor and a minister of the state were killed in broad daylight for speaking against the blasphemy law, I am astonished how the counsellor affairs can sing songs about the safety of Ahmadi Muslims.

Shame on the Consular Affairs, it would have better to keep quiet!

Farhan Khokhar
Ontario, Canada

URL: www.nationmultimedia.com/home/Embassy...30158206.html

Thailand frees 96 Pakistani refugees

World | Pakistan

Thailand frees 96 Pakistani refugees

Conditions in the overcrowded detention centre saw 150 people sharing cells for 30-40 people

APPublished: 00:00 June 7, 2011

Image Credit: AP

Pakistani refugees walk in line to a waiting bus after they were released from the immigration detention centre in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday.

Bangkok: Almost 100 Pakistani refugees were freed Monday from Bangkok’s overcrowded immigration prison in an initiative spearheaded by Thai human rights activists.

The Thai Committee for Refugees said the release on bail of 96 members of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya sect was the first such large-scale release of refugees who Thai authorities treat as illegal aliens.

The group negotiated the release with the state National Human Rights Commission and immigration officials.

Children

The detainees, about a third of whom are children, were arrested last December even though all but two were granted official refugee status by the United Nations because they face persecution in their homeland, where they are considered non-Muslim.

“We are feeling very happy… like a bird in a cage when it comes out,” said Mahmoud, a freed 35-year-old refugee who declined to give his last name. “But we should not say about inside.”

Inhumane conditions

The committee said conditions in the detention centre had been described as “overcrowded, inhumane and unhygienic,” with more than 150 people having to share cells designed for 30 to 40.

“In the women’s cell there were times when women had to stand so that some of them could sleep,” said Anoop Sukumaran, coordinator of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network.

“The children were often sleeping next to the toilets, which were overflowing with faeces and urine. The conditions, to say the least, were horrific at some points.”

Thailand attracts thousands of refugees each year because it is easily accessible by land and sea, and borders several countries that are politically repressive and economically weaker.

Tougher stance

It has generally been welcoming to refugees, especially when they have been fleeing warfare in neighbouring countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar.

In recent years, however, it has taken a harder line toward groups such as the Hmong from Laos and Rohingya from Myanmar, whom they see as economic migrants.

Those released Monday will stay in Bangkok until they are resettled in a third country.

URL: http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/thailand...818354

Detained in Thailand: Almost 100 Pakistani refugees released

Pakistan

Detained in Thailand: Almost 100 Pakistani refugees released

Published: June 7, 2011

The refugees, all members of the Ahmadi community, had been in detention for more than six months. PHOTO: REUTERS

BANGKOK: Almost 100 Pakistani refugees were freed on Monday from Bangkok’s overcrowded immigration prison in an initiative spearheaded by Thai human rights activists, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The Thai Committee for Refugees said the release on bail of 96 members of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya community was the first such large-scale release of refugees who Thai authorities treat as “illegal aliens”, according to AP.

The group negotiated the release with the state National Human Rights Commission and immigration officials.

The detainees, about a third of whom are children, were arrested last December even though all but two were granted official refugee status by the United Nations.

“We are feeling very happy … like a bird in a cage when it comes out,” said Mehnood, a freed 35-year-old refugee who declined to give his last name, as quoted by AP.

The committee said conditions in the detention centre had been described as “overcrowded, inhumane and unhygienic,” with more than 150 people having to share cells designed for 30 to 40 people.

“In the women’s cell there were times when some women had to stand so that others could sleep,” said co-coordinator of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network Anoop Sukumaran.

“The children were often sleeping next to the toilets, which were overflowing with feces and urine. The conditions, to say the least, were horrific at some points.”

Thailand attracts thousands of refugees each year because it is easily accessible by land and sea, and borders several countries that are politically repressive and economically weaker.

It has generally been welcoming to refugees, especially when they have been fleeing warfare in neighbouring countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar. In recent years, however, it has taken a harder line toward groups such as the Hmong from Laos and Rohingya from Myanmar, whom they see as economic migrants.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2011.

URL: http://tribune.com.pk/story/183407/thailand...refugees/

Pakistani refugees freed on bail from Thai jail

World

Pakistani refugees freed on bail from Thai jail

AP
June 06, 2011

A Thai police officer stands next to Pakistani refugees who walk in line to a waiting bus after they were released from the immigration detention center in Bangkok, Thailand Monday, June 6, 2011. – AP

BANGKOK: Almost 100 Pakistani refugees have been freed from Bangkok’s overcrowded immigration prison in an initiative spearheaded by Thai human rights activists.

The Thai Committee for Refugees says the 96 members of Pakistan’s Ahmadi sect were freed on bail Monday in the first such large-scale release of detainees the authorities treat as illegal aliens.

The group negotiated the release with the state National Human Rights Commission and immigration officials.

The detainees, about a third of whom are children, were arrested last December even though all but two were granted official refugee status by the United Nations because they faced persecution in their homeland.

“We are feeling very happy … like a bird in a cage when it comes out,” said Mehmood, a freed 35-year-old refugee who declined to give his last name. “But we should not say about inside.”

The committee said conditions in the detention center had been described as ”overcrowded, inhumane and unhygienic,” with more than 150 people having to share cells designed for 30 to 40.

“In the women’s cell there were times when women had to stand so that some of them could sleep,” said Anoop Sukumaran, coordinator of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network.

“The children were often sleeping next to the toilets, which were overflowing with feces and urine. The conditions, to say the least, were horrific at some points.”

They will stay in Bangkok until they are resettled in a third country.

© 2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved
URL: www.dawn.com/2011/06/06/pakistani...jail.html

Thailand Releases Pakistan Minority Refugees on Bail, Welcomed by Activists

South Asia

Thailand Releases Pakistan Minority Refugees on Bail, Welcomed by Activists

Daniel Schearf | Bangkok June 06, 2011

Photo: AP

Pakistani refugees walk in line to a waiting bus after they were released from the immigration detention center in Bangkok, Thailand, June 6, 2011

Thailand has released nearly 100 refugees of the Ahmadiyah Muslim minority after six months in detention. The group of religious minorities, including women and children, fled persecution in Pakistan only to be arrested in Bangkok. Their release is the biggest-ever secured by a Thai refugee activist group.

The 96 refugees were jubilant after Thai immigration police released them from a Bangkok detention center.

“We are so happy, Kingdom of Thailand. We are, no have words what we say, we only say thank you very much,” said Rana Haroon Siddique, one of the men released on bail.

Siddique and others were freed after the Thai Committee for Refugees worked with Ahmadiyah Muslim groups and other activists to help pay more than $150,000 in bail money.

The Ahmadiyah practitioners fled to Thailand from Pakistan, where they are persecuted as heretics to Islam. Earlier this year, police in Bangkok arrested the 96 during several immigration raids from December to February.

Those in detention included women and more than 30 children, as well as a pregnant woman who gave birth in detention. Refugee rights groups said they were being held in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions with more than 150 people sharing cells meant for a maximum of 40 people.

The U.N. Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, welcomed their release. Spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey said they should not have been arrested in the first place.

“We welcome anyone getting out of detention,”she said. An immigration detention center is no place for any person, particularly elderly people, sick people, babies, children. We welcome any step that gets refugees out of detention. We do not think refugees should be locked up simply for being refugees in the first place.”

McKinsey says they worked with the detained group to fast-track their applications. She says all but two now have been recognized as refugees by the United Nations.

Thailand does not recognize refugees, making everyone without proper documentation subject to arrest and prosecution.

Police Lieutenant General Wiboon Bangthamai is commissioner of the immigration bureau. While he gave no indication authorities are planning to relax their stringent immigration policy, he indicated the dialogue with activists could help speed up the processing of refugees in detention.

He says, according to the law, if they enter Thailand illegally they must be arrested, but he says Thai authorities will continue to work with human-rights organizations on the issue.

While they are on bail, the Ahmadiyah are being housed in Bangkok until they are resettled to a third country.

URL: www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/south/Thailand...123225218.html

Pakistani refugees freed on bail from Thai jail

	June 6, 2011 Monday Updated 9.53 pm

SE Asia

Home > Breaking News > SE Asia > Story

Jun 6, 2011

Pakistani refugees freed on bail from Thai jail

Almost 100 Pakistani refugees have been freed from Bangkok’s overcrowded immigration prison in an initiative spearheaded by Thai human rights activists. – ST PHOTO: NIRMAL GHOSH

BANGKOK - ALMOST 100 Pakistani refugees have been freed from Bangkok’s overcrowded immigration prison in an initiative spearheaded by Thai human rights activists.

The Thai Committee for Refugees says the 96 members of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya Muslim sect were freed on bail on Monday in the first such large-scale release of detainees the authorities treat as illegal aliens.

The group negotiated the release with the state National Human Rights Commission and immigration officials.

The detainees, about a third of whom are children, were arrested last December even though all but two were granted official refugee status by the United Nations because they faced persecution in their homeland.

They will stay in Bangkok until they are resettled in a third country. – AP

URL: www.straitstimes.com/.../STIStory_676772.html

Thailand releases Pakistani refugees on bail

Breaking News »

Thailand releases Pakistani refugees on bail

05 June 2011

Thai immigration police Monday released on bail 96 Pakistani refugees of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community who had been detained for nearly six months.

“Today is our day of freedom,” said Mehmood, one of the released Pakistanis. “We thank God.”

The group was detained in December after arriving from Pakistan to seek resettlement abroad with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has a regional office in Bangkok.

The group claimed political persecution in Pakistan.

Among those released on bail were 34 children under the age of 12, and one infant who was born while his mother was detained.

Their release was made possible by the Thai Committee for Refugees, a non-governmental organisation that put up a 5-million-baht (166,666-dollar) bond for the refugees, who will be housed in Bangkok while waiting for the UNHCR to process the resettlement applications.

“We are glad to see Thai society rallying to protect refugees, who - having fled persecution in their homelands - are among the most vulnerable people in this country,” said James Lynch, UNHCR’s representative for Thailand.

“The UN refugee agency believes no refugee should be locked up simply for being a refugee,” he added.//DPA

URL: www.nationmultimedia.com/home/Thailand...30157111.html

Thailand to free Pakistan refugees

Asia Pacific News Saturday, 04 June 2011

Thailand to free Pakistan refugees

Posted: 04 June 2011 2034 hrs

A Thai soldier stands guard close by Government House in Bangkok.

BANGKOK: Thailand on Saturday confirmed it would release a group of almost a hundred Pakistani refugees and asylum seekers whom activists said includes several dozen children and a baby born in detention.

Ninety-six people, most of whom were arrested in December, will be released from a Bangkok detention centre on Monday, an immigration officer said.

The detained group are from Pakistan’s Ahmadi Muslim community, who suffer violence and persecution in their home country, according to the Thai Committee for Refugees, which helped organise the release.

Veerawit Tianchainan, the organisation’s executive director, said there were 34 children under 12 among those detained in cramped rooms that he said were filled with up to 150 people despite being designed to hold just 40 inmates.

He said one baby was born inside the facility and described conditions as “unhygienic and very crowded”.

“Children were separated from their mothers or fathers and that kind of condition, psychologically, is very very bad,” he said, explaining that families were split up because men and women are held apart.

The organisation has paid a five million baht ($165,000) bail bond and undertaken to provide for the welfare of the Ahmadis as they await the results of resettlement applications, mainly to the US.

“I think that back in Pakistan the Ahmadi were outcast by the Islamic institutions… there was a lot of physical abuse,” he said, adding that the group will now be housed in a Bangkok suburb.

Ahmadis are considered by many Muslims to be heretics and the Pakistani government has officially declared them as non-Muslim.

Ninety-nine Ahmadis were killed in the country in 2010 – more than the total number of the minority group killed in the previous 14 years – according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its annual report released in April this year.

“We had unprecedented killings of Ahmadis in 2010 and the government hasn’t got the guts to console and sympathise with them,” HRCP secretary general I.A. Rehman said at the time.

Veerawit said the agreement to release the group was a “historic development” as it was the first time such a large number of refugees had been freed at once and praised the Thai immigration bureau for being “very cooperative”.

Rights groups had slammed the decision to arrest the Ahmadis in the first place as almost all were believed to be either recognised refugees or awaiting confirmation of their status.

—AFP/wk

Copyright © 2011 MediaCorp Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
URL: www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1133213/1/.html

PAKISTAN: A year on from the Lahore attacks but Ahmedis still suffering

Opinion / Columns

PAKISTAN: A year on from the Lahore attacks but Ahmedis still suffering

FOR PUBLICATION
AHRC-ETC-017-2011
May 30, 2011

An article by Nasim Malik published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: A year on from the Lahore attacks but Ahmedis still suffering

A day of ghastly sight of gristly, gruesome bloodshed of Ahmadis in Lahore Pakistan

A year after the terrifying horrendous massacre of 86 Ahmadis of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Lahore, Pakistan the world remains deeply in shock, appalled by that act of religious terrorism, cold bloodedly covered up by the government of Pakistan.

The 86 murdered were part of a Friday worship service in Darul Zikr mosque in Lahore and Baitul Noor mosque in Model, Town, Lahore. During the course of this carnage nearly 150 people were seriously injured.

The very next day the security forces arrested 6 terrorists who confessed that they had carried out the attack on the Darul Zikr mosque but no action to this day has been taken against anyone. Both the mosques are in close proximity of police stations who could clearly hear the gun shots and blasts but they did not show up on site until the terrorists had exhausted all their ammunition stock. Even on arrival the police did not allow the emergency services to enter the mosque which could have saved many innocent lives of worshippers.

The families of the victims of this carnage received no support or assistance from the government whatsoever and the widows and the orphans are left to suffer and fend for themselves.

The government of Pakistan usurped the fundamental basic human rights, rights of religious freedom of Ahmadis in Pakistan by declaring them non-Muslims in 1974. This was perpetuated by the infamous Ordinance XX promulgated by General Zia ul Haq under which Ahmadi Muslims can be sentenced to death or imprisoned for practising the Islamic faith or using the Islamic scriptures or epithets.

Over 200 Ahmadi Muslims have been murdered in Pakistan for following their faith since 1974 and several hundred prosecuted and imprisoned under the infamous Blasphemy laws.

Pakistan today is infected with Islamists persisting in their hard-line interpretation of Islam based on force and violence to promote their objectives and promote terrorist activities resulting in frightful loss of innocent lives on a daily basis.

The federal government has taken no effective bold step to curb and eliminate the activities of extremists who are continuing to erode the very values on which Pakistan was established.

The political parties in Pakistan too have shown no indication to confront the religious bigotry, extremism and violence which has shattered the social and economic fabric of the society.

Pakistan is a signatory to the UN Human Rights Charter and its ancillary declarations but is attitude and treatment of minorities particularly Ahmadis is deplorable.

Ahmadis now well established in 198 countries of the world have earned a worldwide reputation of being a very tolerant law abiding and peace loving community. They have been treated horribly, unjustly and discriminately to the extent they cannot even vote but they have never protested or acted against the state of Pakistan.

Ahmadi generals shed their blood in the Pakistan wars to protect its integrity and today the government of Pakistan is not showing the slightest regard for the rights, safety and security of Ahmadis in Pakistan.

The 28 May 2010 massacre gives an undeniable slur of cruelty and atrocity upon Pakistan and its continued injustice and violation of the fundamental rights of Ahmadis will not go in vain. It is time that the government of Pakistan sanely attends to its obligations towards all its subjects without discrimination to save itself from a path of destruction on which it is treading. It is now high time for the government of Pakistan to act.

——————
The views shared in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the AHRC, and the AHRC takes no responsibility for them.

About the Author:
Mr. Nasim Malik was a Swedish Socialdemocrat politician and was elected as a reserve member of the Swedish Parliament and President of the International Wing of the Socialdemocrats Kalmar. He can be reached at nasim.malik@kalmar.se

URL: www.humanrights.asia/opinions/columns/AHRC-ETC-017-2011

Ghari Shahu attacks anniversary: 88 Ahmadis killed. 1 year on. 0 justice.

Pakistan

Ghari Shahu attacks anniversary: 88 Ahmadis killed. 1 year on. 0 justice.

By Rana Tanveer
Published: May 28, 2011

A policeman stands guard inside the compound of an Ahmadi worship place, May 30, 2010. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

LAHORE: As grieved Ahmadi families prepare to mark the first anniversary of the deadliest attack on their community in Pakistan’s history, investigations stand still.

On Friday, May 28, 2010, over 88 people were killed in twin gun-and-bomb attacks at Ahmadi places of worship in the Garhi Shahu and Model Town areas in Lahore. Investigations were launched and arrests were made but little has come out of the investigations.

According to police, a charge-sheet against the accused was prepared after investigations and has been submitted before an anti-terrorism court in Lahore. “The remaining attackers were killed in the operation and no other attackers or facilitators have been identified,” Civil Lines Superintendent of Police (Investigations) Captain (retd) Liaquat Ali Malik told The Express Tribune. “Police responded effectively and killed all of the attackers.”

But many members of the Ahmadiyya community believe that the police response was sluggish.

In its annual report released in January, the London-based Ahmadiyya Jama’at said that police took a long time to arrive in numbers and the delayed response led to more casualties due to lack of medical assistance for the injured. “There was inadequate supervision of the police operation. The contingent present at Garhi Shahu received no orders to mount a prompt counter-attack,” the report says.

Ahmadiyya Jama’at Pakistan spokesperson Saleemuddin says that the police has made scant progress in investigations. “The two attackers against whom a charge-sheet was prepared were tackled by worshippers themselves in Model Town. The police has neither identified any other attacker nor has it taken the matter seriously,” he said.

Ahmadis have many fears over their protection in the country. According to the Ahmadiyya Jama’at, 99 members of the community were killed in 2010. The number is confirmed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its State of Human Rights 2010 report. The HRCP adds that 64 Ahmadis were charged with blasphemy that year.

The Lahore attacks, according to Ahmadiyya Jama’at, were not a big surprise as the provincial government had been forewarned by various sources about the likelihood of such an attack.

Even after the attack, no special measures were taken to secure Ahmadi places of worship. In September 2010, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a worship place in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where worshippers were offering Friday prayers.

The Ahmadi population, estimated to be around four million, has been marginalised since Pakistan’s parliament declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. Ten years later, in 1984, then president General Ziaul Haq enacted an ordinance forbidding Ahmadis from calling themselves Muslims and refer to their places of worship as mosques. Under the law, Ahmadis can serve up to three years in prison for “posing as Muslims”.

Saleemuddin believes that the silence over the plight of Ahmadis could lead to more such attacks. “If anti-Ahmadi laws are not repealed, their lives in Pakistan [will continue to] remain in danger,” he says.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28th, 2011.

URL: http://tribune.com.pk/story/177562/ghari-shahu-attacks.../

HRCP condemns denial of relief to Ahmedis

Date: 20 August 2010

HRCP condemns denial of relief to Ahmedis

The HRCP is shocked by reports that government officials and local clerics have refused to provide shelter to around 500 flood-affected Ahmedi families from Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur districts

Lahore, August 20: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed serious concern over the murder of two Ahmedis in the last three days and over reports of denial of shelter to members of the Ahmedi community displaced by massive floods in South Punjab, and has called upon the government to take urgent measures to ensure there is no discrimination on the basis of belief and that assistance and protection are not denied to a community that faces specific threats.

In a statement issued on Friday, HRCP said: “The unrelenting targeted killings of members of the Ahmedi community by extremists is a poor reflection on the State’s obligation to protect the lives of all subjects. This week, the murder of an Ahmedi in Sanghar and another, a doctor, in Karachi only highlights the impunity the perpetrators of such heinous crimes enjoy. Only bringing the culprits to justice and promoting tolerance in society would bring an end to these senseless killings and would give the Ahmedi community confidence that they can lead peaceful lives as equal citizens of Pakistan.

The HRCP is also shocked by reports that government officials and local clerics have refused to provide shelter to around 500 flood-affected Ahmedi families from Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur districts.

The Commission has noted with extreme concern reports of lack of provision of relief goods to the flood-affected Ahmedi families, expulsion of displaced Ahmedis from a government school in Dera Ghazi Khan and from rented lodgings elsewhere in South Punjab following clerics’ pressure as well as the issuance of edicts by clerics that the affected Ahmedis must not be provided help.

HRCP reiterates the urgent need for distribution of relief goods and extension of other support to the affected people without any discrimination on the basis of faith or gender. The fact that the Ahmedis are a vulnerable community on account of their religious beliefs must lead to specific assistance and protection measures for them, including protection of their lives and property.

The extensive scale of displacement and destruction by the massive floods has understandably stretched the resources of the government to their very limits. However, it is hoped that whatever little is available from any source will be distributed among those in need without discrimination on the basis of religious belief. It would be a greater tragedy than the devastation caused by the floods if the people cannot find enough humanity and compassion in their hearts to rise above personal biases to help without distinction fellow human beings that are in desperate need of help.”

Dr Mehdi Hasan
Chairperson

URL: http://www.hrcp-web.org/showprel.asp?id=158

HRCP blasts attack on Ahmadis in Lahore

---Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

Date: 28 May 2010

HRCP blasts attack on Ahmadis in Lahore

HRCP has strongly condemned the militant attacks on the worship places of Ahmadi community in Lahore and called upon the government to take adequate measures to protect the minorities

by: Asma Jahangir Chairperson

Lahore, May 28: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has strongly condemned the militant attacks on the worship places of Ahmadi community in Lahore and called upon the government to take adequate measures to protect the minorities.

In a statement issued May 28, HRCP Chairperson Asma Jahangir said the commission had been warning the Punjab government about the threats being given to the Ahmadi community centre in Model Town, Lahore for more than a year. An HRCP delegation had held meetings with Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif to apprise him of the situation and had demanded enhanced security measures to protect the vulnerable minority and its worship places. HRCP is of the view that though the Punjab government apparently took some steps to bolster the security but they were not enough to face the well-coordinated and well-planned terrorist attack as witnessed on Friday. HRCP is concerned over the increasing sectarian dimension of the militancy and considers it a big security threat to the entire society. In carrying out such barbaric attacks, the militants have no such objective that could be acceptable to the civil society. HRCP urges on the government to provide foolproof security and protection to the Ahmadi community. The Commission also appeals to the sections of the civil society that have been sympathetic to the militants, for some inexplicable reasons, to raise their voice on this inhuman act and express their solidarity with the country’s vulnerable communities.

URL: www.hrcp-web.org/showprel.asp?id=127

Pakistan: Gunmen kill Ahmadi shop owner in Kotri

--- Daily Times, Pakistan

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Gunmen kill Ahmadi shop owner in Kotri

Staff Report

LAHORE: Unidentified gunmen shot dead an Ahmadi shop owner outside his house in the Kotri district of Sindh on Monday evening.

The 55-year-old father of four had no rivalries and had been killed because of his faith, a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community claimed in a press release on Tuesday.

He said Saeed Ahmed ran a small shop in the Uthwal area of the district and had just reached home when he was killed at his doorstep.

Two Ahmadis had been killed in similar but separate shooting incidents in Sindh last year, after a fatwa (religious edict) against the community. The spokesman expressed his community’s concern over the ‘serial killings’ of its members, and criticised the prominent exposure some print and electronic media gave to provocative statements against Ahmadis. Police have registered a case but has not arrested anyone so far.

URL: www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\01\21\story_21-1-2009_pg7_18