Ahmadi Muslim brutally killed in Pakistan

27th December 2010 PRESS RELEASE

Ahmadi Muslim brutally killed in Pakistan

Sheikh Omar Javed of Mardan was martyred on
23 December 2010

It is with great sadness that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat hereby confirms that Mr Sheikh Omar Javed of Mardan, Pakistan was martyred on 23 December 2010.

The facts of the cases are as follows:

Sheikh Omar Javed was returning home from work with his father and cousin in their family car at around 6.45pm when unknown assailants, on a motorbike, started firing at their car. Sheikh Omar Javed was in the backseat and was shot both in the head and in the chest. He died there and then and thus was martyred. The assailants fled the scene immediately, having fired around 17 or 18 bullets.

The father and cousin of Sheikh Omar Javed were also injured, however both are expected to make full recoveries.

Sheikh Omar Javed is survived by his wife, who is expecting their first child.

Other members of Sheikh Omar Javed’s family have also been martyred in recent times. On 3rd September 2010, Sheikh Amir Raza was martyred during the suicide bomb attack that took place on the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat mosque in Mardan. Then on 8 November 2010 Sheikh Mahmud Ahmad was also martyred in Mardan. A member of this family was also martyred back in 1974, the year in which Ahmadi Muslims were declared non-Muslim in Pakistan.

Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, said:

“Despite the numerous martyrdoms that have befallen this family, they continue to bear these great difficulties with bravery and patience. After the last martyrdom, in November, I spoke to the family members and it was with great courage and strength that they all expressed their feelings and emotions. May Allah elevate the status of the deceased and grant patience to his loved ones.”

22 Deer Park Road, London, SW19 3TL UK
Tel/Fax: 020 8544 7613 Mob: 077954 90682
Email: press @ ahmadiyya.org.uk
Press Secretary AMJ International

Ahmadi killed in suicide bomb attack in Mardan

FLASH-Human Rights

FAX September 5, 2010

Ahmadi killed in suicide bomb attack in Mardan

Ahmadiyya mosque in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was attacked by two terrorists at about 1:05 p.m. on September 3, 2010. One Ahmadi, Sheikh Amir Raza was martyred during this attack, whilst further loss was prevented by the bravery of Ahmadis charged with securing the premises. The police, despite the threat to the mosque, had provided no official security guards to the mosque even during Friday prayers.

As the terrorists threw a grenade, Ahmadi volunteer guards fired at them and injured one of them. At this one of them beat the retreat while the other persisted in his attack. He failed to enter the mosque, so blew himself up in a huge explosion at the parameter. Consequently the mosque gate and the outer wall were destroyed. This resulted in serious injuries to Mr Raza who died on the way to hospital. Three other Ahmadis Fahim Khan, Taufeeq Ahmad and Imran Javed were injured in the heinous attack.

Sheikh Amir Raza is survived by his wife, a nine years old son and an infant daughter.

The Head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Jamaat stated in his Friday sermon, inter alia:

“May God quickly save our country from the acts of such evil persons and groups. Indeed, I pray that He saves the entire world because such evil has spread throughout the world.”

Ahmadi Muslim Killed in Suicide Bomb Attack in Pakistan

4th September 2010 PRESS RELEASE

Another Ahmadi Muslim Killed in Suicide Bomb Attack in Pakistan

May God quickly save our country from the acts of such evil persons and groups.

It is with great regret that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat confirms that yesterday, 3rd September 2010 its Bait-ul-Zikr mosque in Mardan, Pakistan was attacked by two terrorists. One Ahmadi Muslim, Sheikh Amir Raza was martyred during this attack, whilst further loss was prevented by the bravery of the Ahmadi Muslims charged with securing the premises.

FACTS

On 3rd September 2010 at around 1.05pm local time Mr Ata-ul Hameed was leading the Friday prayers at the Bait-ul-Zikr mosque at Muslimabad, Canal Road, Mardan when two unknown terrorists tried to enter the premises.

Initially one of the attackers threw a grenade towards the Mosque entrance which landed a few metres away. Upon seeing this, the Ahmadi Muslims near the entrance went into the mosque and locked the door from the inside.

Due to the bravery of further Ahmadi security personnel one of the attackers was injured and so he retreated. However the other began to fire his gun indiscriminately. He again tried to enter the mosque but was prevented from doing so by the Ahmadis on duty. Seeing that he would not be able to enter the mosque the terrorist chose to detonate a bomb hidden inside his jacket in a suicide attack. The effect of the explosion was massive and due to the impact the mosque gate and the outer wall were both destroyed. The homes of Ahmadis who lived nearby were also damaged by the explosion. Upon the explosion the other terrorist who had retreated ran away and remains unaccounted for.

Inside the mosque building at the end of a small corridor is a small room where final security checking takes place. At the time of the attack Sheikh Amir Raza was on duty in that room. When he heard firing he closed the inner door in an effort to protect the worshippers who had come for Friday prayers and also to prevent either of the terrorists from entering into the mosque area. However when the suicide bomber blew himself up the blast was so severe that it caused the door and wall of the room Sheikh Amir Raza was in to collapse. As it fell the door struck Sheikh Amir Raza and he was seriously injured. Tragically, on the way to hospital Sheikh Amir Raza succumbed to the injuries and was thus martyred.

Sheikh Amir Raza was 40 years old and was the son of the late Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmad. He was a much loved and dedicated member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat. He had an electronics business and also worked for a food items agency.

Sheikh Amir Raza is survived by his wife, Lubna Amir, his son Usama (9) and infant daughter.

Three other Ahmadi Muslims were also injured in this heinous attack. They are Fahim Ahmad Khan, Taufeeq Ahmad and Imran Jawed.

The Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad said in his Friday Sermon of 3rd September 2010:

“Today we received very sad news that during the Friday prayers our Mosque in Mardan was attacked by terrorists. One person was martyred and some others were injured. May Allah elevate the status of the martyr and grant full recovery to those who were injured.”

His Holiness went on to say:

“What type of people are these, who in the name of Islam and in the name of God perpetrate such evil acts? These people who attack worshippers of God in His name can under no circumstances claim to be Godly. Just two days ago there was also an attack on a Shia religious procession in Lahore in which many innocent people were killed and many others were injured. May God quickly save our country from the acts of such evil persons and groups. Indeed I pray that He saves the entire world because such evil has spread throughout the world.”

22 Deer Park Road, London, SW19 3TL UK
Tel/Fax: 020 8544 7613 Mob: 077954 90682
Email: press @ ahmadiyya.org.uk
Press Secretary AMJ International

Opinion: How can Pakistan turn over a new leaf?

Opinion Home / Worldview

Opinion: How can Pakistan turn over a new leaf?

The only chance to cleanse the state is to return to a secular identity.

By Sonya Fatah — Special to GlobalPost
Published: July 18, 2010 10:35 ET in Worldview

Pigeons fly over the Wazir Khan Mosque in the walled city of Old Lahore on July 9, 2010 in Pakistan. (Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

NEW DELHI, India — It isn’t a topic that’s making headlines in Pakistan. But it’s a debate that’s been raised countless times since the country’s birth in August 1947: Should Pakistan be secular?

Dogged by internal crises, the rise of a growing intolerant extremist segment and a deliberately apathetic state and military response, Pakistan’s future seems bleak.

Imagine a reinvention. Get rid of the “Islamic” part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Shred all copies and records of the 1973 constitution and repeal a series of self-serving amendments to the constitution as well as bigoted anti-minority and anti-women laws. What you may be left with is the skeleton for a secular democracy.

A spate of recent terror attacks suggests this might be Pakistan’s only way of battling its inner demons. On May 28, armed militants attacked two mosques of the Ahmadiya community in Lahore. Ninety-seven people died and dozens were wounded.

Then on July 1 there were twin suicide attacks on Data Darbar also in Lahore, one of the largest and most visited Sufi shrines in Pakistan. The attack on the shrine was extraordinarily bold because it was an attack on Pakistan’s majority of Sunni barelvi believers. Some 43 people died.

In Faisalabad, on July 2, two Christian brothers were arrested for violating the Blasphemy Law. They’ve been accused of writing a pamphlet with derogatory comments about Prophet Muhammad. [Both of them were killed on 19th by an unknown gunmen in fron of City Court, while in Police custody.] In Waris Pura, a locality of some 100,000 Christians, Muslim mobs have been threatening to burn homes and kill Christians if both brothers are not executed.

The simple fact is that the state has, especially over the last 40 years, allowed for the persecution of its minorities. It has rewarded its majority to discriminate against them.

Sound harsh? A little exaggerated? Here are the facts.

Lets start with the Ahmadiyas. In 1974, under the supposedly liberal leadership of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, parliament passed a law declaring Ahmadiyas non-Muslims. This was a reward to the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Pakistan for spreading virulent anti-Ahmadiya hate speech and demanding their removal from the esteemed list of Pakistan-approved Muslim identities.

As if that wasn’t enough, Pakistan’s favorite general, General Zia ul Haq — whose arched eyebrows would have given Jack Nicholson some sleepless nights — presided over Ordinance XX in 1984. The ordinance spelt out the following: Ahmadiyas were not allowed to call themselves Muslims, to pray in regular mosques, to read out Quranic verses, or to “pose as Muslims.”

Move now to Faisalabad where street protests against two Christian brothers are mounting. No one has witnessed the brothers writing the pamphlet. As members of a tiny minority they’re unlikely to have wanted to defile anything Muslim in public or in private.

But the problem for Rashid and Sajid Emmanuel is something called the Blasphemy Law. Another gift of Zia ul Haq, the 1986 law carries the penalty of death for anyone who desecrates the Quran or defiles the name of Prophet Muhammad.

Many dubious claims invoking blasphemy have been made against innocent Muslims, Hindus and Christians alike since the law was first passed. Surrounded by a volatile public whose religious sensitivity is beyond reason, the accused often gets his or her death sentence before the matter even reaches the court.

Pakistan has always struggled to define itself. In the absence of a concrete identity, Islam has been used and manipulated for political ends. In 1958 the official tag of “Islamic” Republic was added to its name.

Pakistan’s founder, the barrister Mohammad Ali Jinnah, had no such plan for Pakistan. On Aug. 11, 1947, when addressing the first constituent assembly, he told Pakistanis, “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State.

“You will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”

That was not Jinnah’s singular speech on secularism.

Sadly, he died in 1948 and what has happened since then is a sad and dangerous tale.

As the 2010 report of the United States commission on International Religious Freedom puts it: “Religiously discriminatory legislation has fostered an atmosphere of intolerance” in Pakistan.

Over the years Pakistanis have watched as minority groups and women have been targeted. Yet with the exception of a few activist groups and human rights organizations, the majority of Pakistanis have maintained a condemnable silence.

The difference was palpable in national reactions to the two, separate attacks on religious communities in Lahore.

“This act of violence was unanimously — politicos, religiosos and all — vociferously ‘condemned’ and the country saw many protests, demos and city shut-downs,” Amina Gilani wrote, referring to the attacks on Data Darbar, in The Tribune, one of Pakistan’s English-language dailies. “A somewhat different reaction to the event of May 28 … The reaction of the majority — politicos, religiosos and all — was comparatively rather muted. It raised no suggestions for a national get-together.”

How does Pakistan turn over a new leaf? Pakistan’s only salvation to cleanse the state and its mindset is to return to a secular identity.

“[We] will need a revolution of the national mindset and a whole new constitution,” said Ardeshir Cowasjee, a longtime writer and editorialist. “[We] will also need a whole and entire new brand of politicians, or leaders of whatever type. We need to do away with ‘Islamic’ and with the Objectives Resolution before we can even begin to make progress — plus ditch quickly the Hadood Ordinances and the blasphemy laws and all Islamic provisions, which govern this country. So it has to be secularism all the way.”

That’s a lot of work for any country, more so for one in crisis.

Still there are forces moving in that direction. On Christmas Day last year, Haji Adeel, a major political leader of the Awami National Party and a Pakistani senator, advocated a return to secularism. Adeel found himself the target of a host of critics including the Islamic right. But he also found supporters, and set off debate in various circles about the idea.

Now that Saudi-style and Saudi-funded Wahhabi Islam has reached the popular shrine of Data Ganj Baksh, perhaps more Pakistanis will see that the anti-American, anti-Israeli and anti-colonialist body that defines itself as the Taliban, is also anti-them.

Still, even if secularism is Pakistan’s yellow brick road to saving itself, it’s going to take a lot more than changing the constitution and axing a few laws. This is a battle for changing mindsets, and Pakistanis are in it for the long haul.

URL: www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100714/lahore-pakistan-religion-islam

CCTV footage of Garhi Shahu worship place attack obtained

Pakistan

CCTV footage of Garhi Shahu worship place attack obtained

Friday, 16 Jul, 2010

Seventy people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the attack on the worship place in Garhi Shahu. — Photo by AP/File

LAHORE: DawnNews has obtained the CCTV footage of the May 28 terrorist attack on the Ahmedi worship place in Lahore’s Garhi Shahu area.

The footage was recorded from a camera placed outside “Darul Zikr”, the Ahmadi prayer house.

The footage shows two heavily-armed terrorists enter the place of worship at the time of prayers and shooting at worshippers.

People panicked as a result and the footage shows them running haphazardly to save their lives.

The terrorists took to different rooms in the prayer house and shot at people after which they entered the main hall and blew themselves up.

Seventy people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the attack on the worship place in Garhi Shahu.

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved

URL: www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/d...age-qs-11

Punjab govt’s inaction against militants irks GHQ

FROM THE PAPER » FRONT PAGE

Punjab govt’s inaction against militants irks GHQ

   By Baqir Sajjad Syed

   Thursday, 08 Jul, 2010

At least 37 people were killed in an attack on Data Darbar shrine, Lahore. — AFP

ISLAMABAD: While public attention has been focused on the political barbs flying between Islamabad and Lahore, behind the scenes the Pakistan Muslim League-N has earned itself a new and very powerful adversary thanks to its inaction against the ‘Punjabi Taliban’ – the Pakistan Army.

It is now evident that the Punjab government led by the PML-N and the army, which is spearheading counter-terrorism operations, are on a warpath.

At a recent meeting at the General Headquarters (GHQ), senior intelligence officers conveyed their serious concern to the Punjab government over its failure to act against terrorists based in the province on the basis of information provided to it.

Other issues that were discussed included the lax handling of detained terrorists, especially of an injured assailant apprehended after the recent attack on Ahmadi places of worship (he was allowed to communicate with his accomplices from his hospital bed by a cellphone which allowed them to launch an attempt to free him).

Sources say that the meeting was attended by the top officials from both sides.

Nonetheless, officially both sides are denying any knowledge of this exchange. Punjab Government’s Public Relations Director-General Raoof Hassan said he was not aware of any such meeting since it did not appear on the official schedule. He also declined, in his capacity as one of Punjab government’s spokesmen, to assist in getting the comments of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on the issue.

Long before the attack on Ahmadis, an alert was circulated by an intelligence agency warning that a group of militants led by previously little-known Qari Daud had been tasked by the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leadership to attack the community in Punjab. However, the warning was not heeded.

It is said that warnings about an attack on Data Darbar were also ignored by the provincial authorities.

Besides citing specific instances, sources in the national security apparatus said it was particularly worrying that the PML-N government was in a state of total denial about the existence of the problem in the province which was in the militants’ line of fire.

This spat between the Punjab government and the army turned into a more serious war of words after a news report based on leaks by the provincial authorities surfaced.

The report said the army and intelligence agencies were not cooperating with the Punjab government in investigation into terrorist attacks.

Senior officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, scoffed at the report. “Nowhere in the world do spies stand in the witness box and give testimony,” one of them said.

They also questioned why had the provincial government failed to crack down on militant bases identified by intelligence agencies, including the Bahawalpur seminary run by Maulana Masood Azhar of the banned Jaish-i-Muhammad.

“What has the Punjab government done to round up middle- and low-ranking activists and office-bearers of these outfits? Has it confiscated hate material churned out by them?” are other hard-hitting questions the officers are now raising.

“We have time and again told them to act against the Bahawalpur madressah where a number of militants are hiding. But they are not ready to do so,” one official said. He alleged that the Punjab government was sitting on the fence as far as sectarian-cum-militant organisations were concerned.

Earlier criticism by the federal government was ritually dismissed by the provincial leadership as political point-scoring.

A security analyst said militants always benefited from poor civilian intelligence; a politicised police force; and de-motivated, poorly trained and ill-equipped local law-enforcement paraphernalia in the province.

But now they had a new advantage – those in the provincial political leadership, bureaucracy and LEAs who are willing to turn a blind eye to their activities, he said.

Investigators said that most terrorist attacks in Punjab were linked to the TTP and Punjabi Taliban in contrast to claims by certain quarters that the so-called ‘foreign hand’ was involved in them.

The message from the terrorist groups perpetrating these attacks is that the government should negotiate with the militant organisations and stop its efforts to help the Afghan government reconcile with various warring factions, notably the Haqqani network.

Security officials said they felt encouraged by the federal government’s position of not entertaining any such demands.

However, they revealed that they were taken aback by PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif’s recent media remarks articulating views similar to those of the Taliban and their sympathisers.

Recent media reports had quoted the Punjab home department as having planned action against 23 militant organisations working under new names.

But, the sources say, no notification has been issued to proscribe the outfits that have resurfaced under new names after having been outlawed.

Police officials say they now have new, specific orders to act against terrorist groups. The police, they say, are already working against ‘suspicious elements’.

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved

URL: www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-l...tion-against-militants-irks-ghq-870-hs-08

Religious intolerance of Pakistan is a global threat

Religious intolerance of Pakistan is a global threat

On May 28, with memories of the despicable attempt of a Pakistani-American Muslim to kill scores of New Yorkers still fresh in our minds, Pakistani Muslim terrorists brutally killed 86 innocent people while they offered Friday prayers. The twin mosque attack was in Lahore, Pakistan. The two events took place on two opposite corners of the globe but shared a striking similarity.

By: Imran Hayee, Duluth News Tribune        July 08, 2010

On May 28, with memories of the despicable attempt of a Pakistani-American Muslim to kill scores of New Yorkers still fresh in our minds, Pakistani Muslim terrorists brutally killed 86 innocent people while they offered Friday prayers. The twin mosque attack was in Lahore, Pakistan.

The two events took place on two opposite corners of the globe but shared a striking similarity. In both events, the victims were non-Muslims, according to Pakistani law, and the terrorists belonged to the same Pakistani extremist organization, the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan.

Over the past few years, it has seemed that almost every terrorist act anywhere on the globe somehow has involved Pakistan. Why? Finding a clear answer may be a complex exercise, but the unyielding and state-sanctioned religious intolerance in Pakistan is the major contributing factor for this phenomenon.

Soon after its founding, Pakistan succumbed to the demands of religious extremists who started a concerted campaign to establish a puritanical fundamentalist state. The successive governments allowed this religious bigotry to flourish and distract the people from real issues of governance. Intolerance gradually crept into the fabric of Pakistani society. In 1974, the Pakistani government committed an unprecedented act of religious intolerance when it constitutionally defined who is a Muslim. In 1984, Ordinance XX and the subsequent anti-blasphemy laws institutionalized the persecution of minorities and religious dissidents with severe punishment and even death for those non-Muslims “impersonating” Muslims.

The unfounded but patronized religious intolerance of the Pakistani government has encouraged extremist clerics to define their own obscurantist version of Islam. Their version allows no tolerance for divergent views; killing any non-Muslim or heretic is their favorite slogan. Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists are their obvious targets, but any Muslims who do not see the world through their eyes are not spared. Many extremist clerics spread this philosophy of hate and intolerance through their madrassas, or religious schools, by brainwashing innocent children and frustrated youth. The graduates of these madrassas are trained to do nothing but kill all who fall outside the realm of their narrow spectrum of life.

This kind of religious intolerance is bound to outgrow the geographical boundaries of Pakistan and few such waves already have occurred with the outpour exponentially increasing. Whether it be the World Trade Center bombing in New York, the shoe bomber’s foiled attempt to blow a U.S.-bound plane, the 7/7 subway attacks in London, the massive hotel and synagogue killings in Mumbai or the recent botched Times Square bombing attempt, each incident has its roots submerged in the philosophy of hatred and the religious intolerance of Pakistan.

If not reverted, this monster can perpetrate unparalleled damage to humanity and civilized culture throughout the world.

To protect against future acts of terrorism, America and the world must act now to pressure the government of Pakistan to uproot the seed of religious intolerance by repealing the anti-blasphemy laws and the current constitutional definition of Islam. Moreover, all madrassas which impart religious intolerance and hatred must be abolished. These madrassas could be nationalized by replacing hate-oriented elements of the intolerant religious education with traditional secular curriculum. This also will help provide jobs to many unemployed, educated, Pakistani youths who otherwise become vulnerable to the ploy of extremist clerics.

The suggested approach is not easy but necessary. Today, if this or a similarly effective approach is not deployed, then tomorrow, each radical madrassa in Pakistan will emerge as a fertile recruiting place for the militant extremists and terrorists, like al-Qaeda. I hope the world and America deal with this Pakistani religious intolerance before it is too late.

Imran Hayee of Duluth is an associate professor and the director of graduate studies in the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He is UMD’s only Pakistani-American Muslim faculty member. He flew to Pakistan the day of the May 28 twin mosque terrorist attacks because his brother-in-law was among the 86 victims. He wrote this for the News Tribune upon his recent return.

© 2010 Forum Communications Co.
URL: www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/173206/group/News/

Six terrorists in Ahmedi worship places’ attacks arrested: CCPO

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Six terrorists in Ahmedi worship places’ attacks arrested: CCPO

LAHORE: The Lahore Police on Monday claimed to have arrested six terrorists involved in the attacks on the worship places of Ahmedis and recovered large quantities of explosives and weapons from their possession.

Addressing a press conference, Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Muhammad Aslam Tareen said that the terrorists identified as Haroon Saeed, Rizwan, Umair, Umer, Javed Alam and Abbas were also involved in different terrorist activities, including the attacks at the Jinnah Hospital and Moon Market. He said that police had recovered 18,000 kgs of explosive material, six kalashnikovs, 21 grenades and 600 bullets, adding that terrorists Haroon Saeed and Rizwan had also been involved in insurgency activities in Afghanistan, while Umair and Umer were acting as facilitators and Javed Alam and Abbas were the owners of the houses where these terrorists were living. APP

URL: www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\07\06\story_6-7-2010_pg13_2

Inquiry into attacks on Ahmedis pulls off vanishing act

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Inquiry into attacks on Ahmedis pulls off vanishing act

*	CM had entrusted committee with determining factors that contributed to attacks
*	Ahmedi leader says compensation for victims was never given

By Afnan Khan

LAHORE: The inquiry that was ordered by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to identify the security loopholes and the reasons behind the terrorist attacks on the worship places of Ahmedis has become long overdue and does not seem to be coming out of the works anytime soon.

According to the CM’s orders, the inquiry report was supposed to be filed within five days of the attacks, which left around 90 people dead and around 200 injured after terrorists stormed Ahmedi worship places at Model Town and Garhi Shahu on May 28. Rights activists and civil society members have accused the Punjab government for adopting a “neglectful and discriminatory behavior” towards the victims of the attacks.

The CM had set up a high-level inquiry committee, headed by Punjab Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad and consisting of the provincial home secretary and inspector general of police.

The committee was given the task of discovering the factors that had contributed to the attacks. The issue has been put aside by the bureaucracy, as the inquiry report, which was due to be submitted before the CM by June 3, never surfaced and there is no government account on whether the negligence of government officials contributed to the loss of so many innocent lives.

A senior Ahmedi leader, requesting anonymity, told Daily Times that the community members were afraid and had felt exposed to danger a few days before the attack took place, adding that the minority group had made several requests to the government to provide them with Elite Force personnel to tackle any terror attacks, “but the government never listened to any of our demands and only provided a few guards who had no capacity to stand against such an attack”.

“But the thing that has further scared and confused the Ahmedis in the country is the fact that the government changed the station house officers of both the areas’ police stations a few days before the incident. Not only that, a magistrate visited the areas and removed all Ahmedi volunteers with weapons,” he said.

Missing compensation: He said that the compensation announced by the Punjab government was never given to those who had lost their loved ones and those who were severely injured in the attack. Munawar Ali, the spokesman for the minority group, told Daily Times that there were a number of discriminatory acts conducted by the Punjab government against the community, “which further increases the gravity of the tragedy”. He said that the terrorist had managed to kill so many people because of loopholes in security, “but the government downplayed the incident from the start”. He said the minority group was only allowed to depute a few volunteers inside the worship place, but they were not allowed to carry any firearms. None of the Punjab government officers, including government spokesman Pervaiz Rasheed and Senior Adviser to the CM Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, commented on the issue. However, Fawad Hassan Fawad told Daily Times that he apologised for the inquiry not having been completed, adding that he could not complete it since he was busy with his own department’s issues. He said the inquiry should have been assigned to some other officer, “who would have worked on it”.

URL: www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\07\06\story_6-7-2010_pg13_4

Religious fundamentalism main root of violence in Pakistan

Religious fundamentalism main root of violence in Pakistan

By Mahfooz Kanwar, For The Calgary Herald July 6, 2010

In a little more than a month there have been two major terrorist attacks perpetrated by Muslims against other Muslims at mosques in Lahore, Pakistan.

This past Thursday, two suicide bombers blew themselves up killing at least 42 people and injuring a minimum of 180 people at the Data Darbar shrine, where a famous Sufisaint is buried.

On May 28, fundamentalist Muslims massacred more than 90 Ahmadiyya Muslims at their two mosques in Lahore and injured hundreds more.

When these events occur – and their have been many more in this Punjab region of Pakistan – the world wonders: why do Muslims kill other Muslims?

Not only did some Muslim fundamentalists armed with suicide vests, guns and grenades kill and injure dozens of worshippers, but they also took a large number of Ahmadis hostage.

This appalling, murderous act is not unusual in the history of Pakistan. In 1953, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, a fundamentalist religious and political party in Pakistan, created a murderous upheaval against Ahmadis in the same city of Lahore. Jamaat’s hooligans killed approximately 2,000 innocent Ahmadis. Now, the Taliban and al-Qaeda are suspected in this sectarian violence.

During my schooling, I minored in Islamic studies, and have published a book on Sociology of Islam. I have studied Islam further and have published my research in two other of my books as well as columns in newspapers and I have discussed those results in three of my 21 documentaries over the years.

Many Muslim fundamentalists are semi-literate, and some of them totally illiterate mullahs. The Holy Book of Qur’an makes it very clear that those Muslims who kill or commit suicide will be condemned to hell. Yet, some of these ill-informed Muslim extremists, such as suicide bombers, commit both murder and suicide. And they believe they are acclaimed to go to heaven in their life here after.

Pakistani Islamists always have had issues with the Muslim sect of Ahmadis. Along with the Islamic fundamentalists, some prominent secular politicians have also played the card of religion in Pakistan. The former prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims in the early 1970s.

Bhutto’s government introduced a column for religion on the national identity cards as well as passports in singling out the Muslim sect of Ahmadis along with the rest of non-Muslims in Pakistan. This was designed basically to create a system of religious apartheid in Pakistan. That act smacked the basic Islamic principle of tolerance.

In Pakistan, Ahmadis are often barred from praying in their mosques. To preach their faith is considered to be a crime under Article 295 of the Penal Code of Pakistan. The federal sharia Court of Pakistan has ruled that preventing Ahmadis from preaching their faith is no violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution of Pakistan. This is akin to the system of apartheid which was once practised in South Africa.

Although Bhutto was overwhelmingly supported politically by more than two million Ahmadis in Pakistan, he declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims. Bhutto, a secular political leader, betrayed Ahmadis big time. However, the vile fundamentalist and ruthless military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq expanded the system of apartheid for Ahmadis in Pakistan.

What makes Bhutto, Zia and many mullahs qualified to decide who are or aren’t Muslims? It is supposed to be God’s business to judge His creatures.

In my research for my forthcoming book, Addiction to Religion, I note, among other things, that Islam means peace and Muslims are supposed to adhere to peace, but that does not seem to be the case for decades now.

Islam is a religion but Islamism is an addiction to religion that leads to terrorism. Fundamentalism is a gateway to addiction to religion which blinds people to become suicide bombers who commit two sins in Islam that will take them to hell.

Unfortunately, Pakistan is ruled by five pillars of corrupt establishment. They are: unpatriotic feudal landlords turned politicians (they, along with the Jamaat-e-Islami, were opposed to the creation of Pakistan), cruel military dictators (who have ruled Pakistan ruthlessly for more than half of it’s history), corrupt politicians, depraved bureaucrats, and fundamentalist mullahs.

This last pillar is perhaps the most key. Until the idea of freedom of religion becomes accepted in Pakistan, Muslims will keep on killing each other. That’s because they believe that there is only one way to practice Islam – their way. They are taught no tolerance to other faiths or even to those who share their faith but practise it differently. That’s why Shiites kill Sunnis, Sunnis kill Shiites, both kill Ahmadis and these groups – with the backing of the government and Pakistani law – all persecute and attack Christians and Hindus.

Until and unless something revolutionary happens, Pakistan will continue facing drastic, murderous problems.

Mahfooz Kanwar is Professor Emeritus at Mount Royal University

Copyright © The Calgary Herald

URL: www.calgaryherald.com/news/Religious+fundamental...00/story.html

Taliban oppresses Ahmadi Muslim sect in Pakistan

World:  Asia

Taliban oppresses Ahmadi Muslim sect in Pakistan

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

By Spero News

In June 2010, at least 95 members of the Ahmadi Muslim sect were killed and nearly 100 injured in attacks on their places of worship in Garhi in Lahore, Pakistan’s Punjab province. This attack is part of a campaign against Ahmadis by Islamist groups such as the Sunni Tehrik, Tehrik-e-Tahafaz-e-Naomoos-e-Risalat, Khatm-e-Nabuwat and many others who are openly sympathetic to terrorist groups, including Taliban. Ironically, most of the politicians were very careful to condemn the attacks on Ahmadis. Even Punjab’s chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, leader of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Nawaz Group), has not shown his face at either mosque, despite living down the road from them. Mohammed Hanif, a journalist, writes, “When the funerals of the massacred Ahmadis took place there were no officials, no politicians present.”

Later, former Pakistan Prime Minister and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said that the members of the minority Ahmedi sect are his brothers and sisters and that militants should be flushed out wherever they are active. His comments drew sharp criticism from religious parties like Khatm-e-Nabuwat Movement (KNM), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Jamaat-e-Islami. Maulana Ilyas Chinioti, the head of KNM, a member of the PML-N and the Punjab provincial assembly, also condemned Sharif’s statement. There was no doubt that Maulana Chinioti seems to be openly preaching that non-Muslims are lesser humans. Daily Times says that those who dare to defend the rights of religious minorities are usually labeled as being ‘anti-Islam’.

According to The News of Pakistan, a surviving attacker of the Lahore carnage, Abdullah alias Muhammad, disclosed that he was misled into believing that Ahmadis were involved in drawing blasphemous cartoons of Mohammed, and believed that killing them was a great service to Islam. The attacker belongs to a militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda. He was trained in Miramshah in North Waziristan, lawless tribal area of Pakistan.

Right after the Lahore carnage, a mysterious SMS campaign has been launched against Ahmaddiya community which makes them more fearful, the Minorities Concern of Pakistan learnt. Moreover, the Islamists issued statements in which they asked Ahmadis to cease from hurting the feelings of the majority population. Jamaat-i-Islami chief Syed Munawwar Hasan, on June 18, warned of a fresh Khatm-i-Nubuwwat movement if the “Ahmadis did not accept their minority status” in Pakistan. At the same time, many blame a “foreign hand.” Some openly said that the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was involved in Lahore attacks. However, Interior Minister Rehman Malik declared on June 18 that the RAW was not involved in the killing of Ahmadis.

Ahmadiyya sect was formed in 1880s in Qadian, India. They view themselves as Muslims but hardliners consider them non-Muslims. They are a relatively small minority in Pakistan and they make up somewhere between 0.25 per cent (according to Pakistan’s census 1998). However, the Economist estimates that their population is 2.5 per cent. They have always been a soft target for persecution. The campaign against them is a decade ago. Before the partition, Anti-Ahmadiyya agitation instigated by Majlis-i-Ahrar, a lower middle class party.

In 1934, Ahrar arranged a big gathering against Ahmadis called Tahafuz-e-Khatm-e-Nabuwat Conference, held at Qadian. Ahrar was angry with Ahmadiyya community to support Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah for the demand of Pakistan. In 1953, six Ahmadis lost their lives when an anti-Ahmadiyya wave swept in newly founded Pakistan. The state constituted an inquiry commission; Justice Muhammad Munir as president and Justice Kayani as member. The commission’s report, also called Munir Report, carried an analysis of the Ulema’s concept of the Islamic State and of a Muslim. The report concluded that the concept of a Muslim differed for different sects and if the fatwas of the Ulema were relied upon to determine whether an individual is Muslim or Kafir then no sect could be called Muslim because of the lack of a single, coherent and unanimous definition of a Muslim and an Islamic State.

According to Waqar Gilani, in 1973, the then president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Abdul Qayyum declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. In the same year, Rabta-e-Alam-e-Islami Conference in Saudi Arabia also gave its stamp of approval to oust Ahmadis from the circle of Islam. The unfortunate beating of the students of Nishtar Medical College, Multan, on May 29, 1974, proved to be a major incident that infuriated this anti-Ahmadi movement. The students, going on train, started shouting against Ahmadis while reaching Rabwah, the headquarter city of Ahmadis in Pakistan, resulting in a strong reaction of Ahmadis to this gathering. The incident geared up the Khatm-e-Nabuwat movement that started a violent protest.

On Sept. 6, 1974, a minor incident sparked other anti-Ahmadiyya riots leaving 24 members of Ahmadiyya community dead. In the same year, they were declared non-Muslims by the parliament.

On April 26, 1984, General Zia-ul-Haq promulgated the Martial Law Ordinance XX. Through this ordinance he introduced some blasphemy laws which undercut the activities of religious minorities generally, but struck at Ahmadis in particular. Since then, frequently, they have been arrested for greeting someone with an Assalam-o-Alaikum, reciting the kalima or reading the Holy Quran. “In the period 1984-2009, 105 Ahmadis were target killed. During the same period, 22 Ahmadiyya mosques were demolished, 28 were sealed by authorities, 11 were set on fire, and 14 were occupied while construction of 41 was banned. In at least 47 cases, burials were denied in common grave yards while 28 bodies were exhumed,” Adnan Farooq and Riaz ul Hassan write in View Point.

Since 2000, an estimated 400 Ahmadis have been formally charged in criminal cases, including blasphemy. According to one report, in 2009, at least 37 Ahmadis were charged under the general provisions of the blasphemy laws and over 50 were charged under Ahmadi-specific provisions of the law. Many of these individuals remain imprisoned.

It is apparent that both the Pakistani state and society are both are very hostile against Ahmadis. Moreover, both printed and electronic Pakistani media have also played a role in spreading hatred against this community. Recently, the Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) blamed the major media outlets in Pakistan for inflaming the rhetoric against Ahmadiyya, Ismaili and Shia Muslims. In particular, the MCC pointed out that GEO Television has become the voice of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and spreads hate against these communities as well as against non-Muslims.

According to one report, “After the attacks some newspapers ran op-ed article creating an impression as if these attacks were a violent consequence of ongoing polemic between certain Muslim sects and the Ahmadiyyas.”

The Minorities Concern of Pakistan learnt that when Jamaat-i-Ahmadiyya’s arranged a press conference after Lahore incident most of the reporters refused to take tea there.

Adnan Farooq writes on June 18: It remained a routine with the Urdu papers to print anti-Ahmadiyya statements and hate-mongering stories with bold headlines. However, no paper published the occasional Ahmadiyya explanation. In year 2007, 974 such news items appeared in the press, but in 2008 the number went up to 1033 items. Almost all of these were prejudiced, hate-promoting and false propaganda. The daily Nawa-i-Waqt (with editor Majeed Nizami) led this bandwagon by printing 465 items. The daily Jang stood second, and the Daily Express was a close third. Provocative statements issued by various clerics’ are carried without any verification. A few of these headlines are translated below: Qadianis are not loyal to the country, nation and Islam: ‘Sajid Mir’ (The daily Jang, Lahore; May 27, 2008) - Qadianis are enemies of Islam and Pakistan: Shadabi Raza, Mufti M. Sadeeq (The Daily Express, Lahore; June 2, 2008).

Source: Minorities Concern of Pakistan

© Copyright Spero, All rights reserved.

URL: www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?idCategory=33&...m+sect+in+Pakistan

Since the Second Amendment

Since the Second Amendment    July 2010

By: Husain Naqi

The massacres at two Ahmadiyya mosques in Lahore is the result of anti-Ahmadi sentiment fanned by religious extremists and allowed by a compromised state and the silent support of political parties.

The 28 May mayhem at two Ahmadiyya mosques in Lahore brought into sharp focus the agenda of extremist Islamic groups against Pakistan’s religious minorities. It also exposed the political opportunism of the government, especially in Punjab province. The civil administration’s complacency, despite being tipped off about the entry of extremists aligned with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) into the province, also lays bare its failure to deal sternly with easily identifiable perpetrators and their patrons amongst banned sectarian outfits. In late May, this complacency resulted in the loss of 94 lives and over a hundred injured.

Unfortunately, the twin attacks targeting this religious minority were not unexpected, but merely constitute the latest in a century of Ahmadi discrimination by mainstream Muslims. Ahmadis were declared to be ‘non-Muslim’ through a constitutional amendment in 1974, under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – despite the fact that, at that time, Bhutto’s left-of-centre Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) enjoyed a two-thirds majority in the national legislature. Ahmadis continue to be derogatorily called Qadianis, after the name of the village in Gurdaspur District, in Punjab state, where the sect’s founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, lived and established his creed’s headquarters in 1901.

The differences between Ahmadis and other Muslims lie in three main areas: prophethood, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and jihad. The main difference is with regard to the common Muslim belief that the Prophet Muhammad was the last among 124,000 prophets, that there would be no prophet after him, and that anyone claiming otherwise was an apostate whose punishment is death. Ahmadis, on the other hand, believe that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the promised messiah. Interestingly, Ahmad had once even described himself as Maseel-i-Krishna (in the likeness of Krishna). While Ahmadiyya communities can today be found in India, Bangladesh and Indonesia (as well as in Europe), the largest, of three million, is in Pakistan, which also has the distinction of being the first country to have officially declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslim.

In the first decade of the 20th century, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad began to be targeted and branded as an apostate by the Ahraris, an ultra-orthodox segment of Deobandi/Wahhabi Islam. The history of the Ahrari community too is important in understanding the matter of Ahmadiyya persecution. Initially, the Ahraris’ political views were nationalistic, and they briefly joined the Congress party; even after they separated, they remained close to the Congress. They were bitter opponents of the Pakistani establishment, even referring to the new country as palidistan (dirty place), and were also vociferous critics of Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

In contrast, the Ahmadis supported the creation of Pakistan and respected Jinnah. At his request, the head of the community at the time, Mirza Bashir-ud-din Mahmood, the son of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, directed all Ahmadis to vote for the Muslim League in the crucial 1946 elections, even declaring that anyone who did not vote for the Muslim League candidate would be considered an outcast. Jinnah reciprocated this gesture when the Muslim League included Zafarullah Khan, a member of a leading Ahmadi family, as Pakistan’s first foreign minister.

At the same time, one of the leading scholars at the Deoband seminary, Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, a virulent critic of the Ahmadis, was also included in the central body of the All Indian Muslim League. It is important to note that Jinnah did not feel that Sharia law should be made supreme in Pakistan, nor even that Islam should be declared the state religion, despite what subsequently took place. Yet after Jinnah’s death, Maulana Usmani and other non-secular elements in the Muslim League hierarchy became dramatically stronger, eventually succeeding in getting the so-called Objectives Resolution (which was eventually made a substantive part of the Constitution by General Zia ul-Haq) passed by the Constituent Assembly, elected in 1946. This formally ensured that the new Constitution would not be based on secular policy lines, as spelled out by Jinnah, but rather stipulated that the country would essentially adopt an Islamic state structure.

For his part, Maulana Usmani assumed the title of Pakistan’s Sheikh-ul-Islam, the supreme Islamic divine. He also needs to be identified as perhaps the earliest exponent of Islamist extremism in Pakistan, as he, along with Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, the owner-editor of the sectarian Urdu daily Zamindar, formed a militant organisation, Sarfaroshan-e-Islam. Throughout this period, Usmani lent considerable support to the anti-Ahmadi lobby, the Ahraris.

Ahrari’s punching bag
After remaining relatively quiet for a time on the establishment of Pakistan, the Ahraris decided to strongly take up an anti-Ahmadi campaign, despite their claims to have given up on their anti-Pakistan views and pledging support for the Muslim League. Doing so also allowed the Ahraris to be taken off the Muslim League’s list of nationalist groups that had opposed Partition (these included Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgar and more than a dozen others). Yet the Ahraris (and other like-minded parties) stepped up their denunciations of Ahmadiyyat and of Ahmad himself, and called for the removal of Foreign Minister Zafarullah Khan and other senior civil and military officers from the Ahmadi community. In this, they were led by three individuals in particular – Maulana Mazhar Ali Azhar, Master Taj Din and Ataullah Shah Bukhari. In the meantime, with the support of the Punjab government, the Ahraris were able to gain a strong political foothold in Punjab province.

Historically, it was actually the Afghan government that first officially considered the Ahmadi community as heretical, with its adherents even given death penalties. The first to fall victim in Kabul, during the reign of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan in the 1920s, was an Ahmadi by the name of Abdur Raahman Khan, who was staked to the ground and stoned to death. Many more such deaths followed, the earliest defence of which came in a pamphlet written by Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani himself. Some 20 years later, this pamphlet was reprinted and distributed in large numbers in Pakistan, especially in the Punjab, despite Jinnah’s fervent attempts at instituting secularism.

In the first decade after Pakistan’s creation, the role of Punjab province as a bastion of political power and bureaucratic control was already well understood by Islamist extremists – the same ones who had identified Ahmadis as a convenient punching bag. Identifying Ahmadis as people who undermined the Prophet’s exalted position as khatam-un-nabiyyeen (the last of the prophets) was sure to give political dividends. This also provided the Ahraris – with their anti-Pakistan, anti-Jinnah background – a convenient way to legitimise themselves in a hostile environment. Having been laundered of their anti-Pakistan past, groups such as the Ahraris were brought into the political mainstream thanks to the feudal leadership of the Punjab Muslim League and the province’s bureaucratic apparatus. It was no wonder that, by May 1948, the first conference of All Pakistan Majlis-e-Ahrar was held in Punjab at Lyallpur (now renamed Faisalabad, after the late Saudi monarch). In the following year, the group held several conferences targeting Ahmadis, particularly demanding that they be declared non-Muslim. Jinnah was still alive but in bad health when the murder of an Ahmadi army doctor, one Major Mahmood, took place.

The anti-Ahmadi campaign succeeded in fanning public hatred against the community, particularly among clerics but also among Punjab’s Shia community. Verbal abuse developed into widespread violence, and there were more murders of Ahmadis and burning of their places of worship. In July 1952, the Ahrari leadership began to spearhead a series of high-level national umbrella meetings of Muslim parties, which sharpened the anti-Ahmadi campaign by passing a resolution to resort to direct action to require the fulfilment of their demands on the Ahmadis, and to form a central committee to that effect. An ultimatum was eventually given to Prime Minister Khwaja Nazimuddin in January 1953, calling on the government to accept the demands within a month. After heated meetings, the government rejected the ultimatum on 27 February, leading to the arrest of the action committee and the beginning of public agitation. In Punjab province alone, some 50,000 volunteers pledged to sacrifice their lives to ‘defend the honour’ of the Prophet Muhammad, while massive donations were collected. Eventually, the military had to be called into various parts of Punjab to restore order, at which point martial law was enforced and some of the top leaders of the anti-Ahmadi actions were sentenced to death (though these were never carried out). That was far from an end to the issue, however.

Wajibul qatl
Two decades after Prime Minister Nazimuddin’s rejection of the anti-Ahmadi lobby’s ultimatum, in 1974 Prime Minister Bhutto surrendered to the Islamists, agreeing to the passage of the Second Constitutional Amendment that officially declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims. The military ruler who followed, Gen Zia ul-Haq, went even farther, introducing a new blasphemy law prohibiting Ahmadis from using Islamic symbols, from calling their places of prayer ‘mosques’, and using the Islamic greeting of as-salaamu alaikum, etc. Gen Zia also amended the Constitution to make the provisions of the Objectives Resolution a substantive part of the Constitution.

While Pakistani civil society has since urged multiple amendments to annul the discriminatory laws and constitutional provisions, the legislators have been lethargic. It is not realistic to expect that the majority of the political parties in the Parliament would take such a step even today. With a political culture ascendant, especially in Punjab where any negative event is quickly branded a conspiracy of yahud-o-hunood (Jews and Hindus) who are not available as targets in the Punjab – the Ahmadis make a convenient target for the politics of hate, before which all the political parties are cowed down.

The vernacular press and Urdu television channels also inflame anti-Ahmadi sentiment. In the months and weeks leading up to the Lahore attacks, a programme on Geo TV, the country’s most popular channel, aired a number of clerics vociferously dubbing Ahmadis as apostates – and reminding viewers that the punishment for apostasy is death; the provincial ruling party in Punjab even sponsored a public meeting at which staunchly anti-Ahmadi clerics were prominent presenters. In days after the attacks, Ahmadis have been publicly described in the media as wajibul qatl (worthy of being killed). Little wonder, then, that an incident such as the Lahore massacre took place – and that worse could yet follow.

Husain Naqi is a freelance columnist and human-rights activist in Lahore.

URL: www.himalmag.com/Since-the-Second-Amendment_nw4592.html

Ahmedis’ assailants jailed on judicial remand

Ahmedis’ assailants jailed on judicial remand

Upadated on: 28 Jun 10 05:11 PM

Staff Report

LAHORE: Assailants of the Ahmedi places of worship in Lahore were presented in the anti-terrorism court Monday, where they were sentenced to be jailed on judicial remand.

The culprits were brought to the court again after a 10-day physical remand.

Both terrorists were caught by worshippers while they were attacking the Ahmedi place of worship at Model Town.

According to the police, Abdullah alias Mohammad belongs to Rahimyar Khan and was trained at Miranshah. He will be brought to court again on July 12 after a 14-day judicial remand.

The other bomber, 20-year-old Mooaz was from southern Punjab, and was earlier identified as Ameer Moavia.

Police also recovered explosive material from the culprits.

Gunmen attacked the Ahmedi places of worship in Model Town and Garhi Shahu on May 29.

Punjab police spokesman DIG Akram Naeem Bharoka told reporters that 79 people had died and 107 injured. However, a spokesman for the Jamaat-i-Ahmadiya Pakistan said that 95 people had lost their lives.

Deputy commissioner of Lahore Sajjad Bhutta said that the death toll at Garhi Shahu was higher because three attackers blew themselves up with suicide vests packed with explosives when police tried to enter the building.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it had warned of threats against the Ahmadi community centre in Lahore for more than a year and demanded “foolproof security and protection” from the government.

It expressed concern over “the increasing sectarian dimension” of militancy in Pakistan, which it called “a big security threat to the entire society”.

Police arrested three suspects on information provided by Abdullah. Abdullah identified the two other men who blew themselves up in Garhi Shahu as Darwaish of Swat and Mansoor of Waziristan.

Abdullah also said that he and three others were sent for the two missions by Badar Mansoor, the head of the Punjabi Taliban group in Waziristan.

The DIG said that the arrest of the two bombers had revealed their network’s link with the TTP and police would be able to reach others. He said that militants were in the habit of forming new groups.

This was the worst attack in Pakistan since March 12 suicide attacks seconds apart killed 57 people in Lahore while targeting the Pakistani military.

Nine attacks have now killed more than 220 people in Lahore over the past year, a historical city, residence for the elite and home to many top officials of the Pakistan military and intelligence establishment. SAMAA

URL: www.samaa.tv/News21825-Ahmedis_assailants_to_be_presented_in_court.aspx

Facilitators of Ahmedis’ attacks arrested

Friday, June 25, 2010

Facilitators of Ahmedis’ attacks arrested

LAHORE: A team of law enforcers, including personnel of intelligence agencies and police commandos, arrested two major suspects of the attacks on the Ahmedis’ worship places, sources told Daily Times on Thursday. They said both men were the main facilitators of terrorists who not only provided weapons and ammunition, but also escorted the terrorists when they had arrived to carry out the attacks in Garhi Shahu and Model Town. The sources said late on Wednesday, a large team of law enforcers, including intelligence agencies’ personnel, had surrounded the Shahdara area. They searched several houses and arrested the two suspects, Rana and Hafeez, and shifted them to unidentified locations for further investigation. The sources said both were arrested on information gathered from the arrested terrorist, Muaaz. They said that during investigation, Muaaz revealed that he had carried out the attack in Model Town under Rana’s supervision, while his accomplices had done their job in Garhi Shahu under Hafeez’s supervision. staff report

URL: www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\06\25\story_25-6-2010_pg13_5

Pakistan’s Medieval Constitution

Monday, June 21, 2010

Pakistan’s Medieval Constitution

It is the only Muslim nation to explicitly define who is or is not a ‘Muslim.’

By MIRA SETHI

In the early hours of May 28, Khalid Solangi was shaken awake by his wife. She told him that she’d heard news of a bloody attack on two Ahmadi mosques in Pakistan. Khalid’s older brother, an Ahmadi Muslim American, had recently flown to Lahore for a wedding and they feared he was one of the victims. “My wife said to me, ‘Your brother has never missed the Friday prayer.’”

And so Khalid dialed his sister-in-law’s number. She confirmed the worst: Her husband had called from his cellphone minutes earlier, asking her to pray for him and the others trapped inside the mosque. “The next thing we heard was that my brother had been martyred,” said Khalid. “He had gone to Pakistan for a wedding. He didn’t even live there.”

When the dust from the bombs settled and the Taliban gunmen stopped their shooting, nearly 100 innocent Muslims lay dead inside the mosques where they had gathered for Friday prayer. This wasn’t the first act of terror committed against this minority Muslim sect.

Since 1953, when the first anti-Ahmadi riots broke out in newly independent Pakistan, the Ahmadi community has lived under constant threat. In 1974, Pakistan amended its constitution to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims.

Ten years later, among a slew of anti-blasphemy laws—one of them famously known as “Ordinance XX”—the military dictator Zia ul-Haq made it a crime for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslims. They were forbidden from declaring their faith publicly, using the traditional Islamic greeting, and referring to their places of worship as mosques. In short, virtually any public act of worship or devotion by an Ahmadi can be treated as a criminal offense punishable by death.

Unsurprisingly, attacks on the Ahmadi community followed. In 2005 eight Ahmadis were gunned down in a mosque in a small town in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. A year later a mob burned down Ahmadi homes and shops in a small village in the province, forcing more than a 100 Ahmadis to flee.

Last winter, while I was home in Lahore, I drove to a beige building near my house to get my passport renewed. The officer, in a small effort to assist me, made Xs next to the lines that needed my signature. First I signed the badly photocopied sheet, again and again. Then I found myself being asked to confirm that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad—a 19th century Punjabi reformer and founder of the Ahmadi movement—was an “imposter.”

This is standard. Every Pakistani Muslim applying for a passport must sign a statement deriding Ahmad, but I had forgotten about the procedure.

I asked the officer what would happen if I didn’t sign above the line. He looked at me blankly: “You don’t want passport?“

Later that day I went with my friends to a restaurant in Old Lahore—the city’s historic quarter—where cramped alleys lead to centuries-old Mughal mosques, forts and gateways. We ate kebabs and shared a hookah. On our way home, passing Lahore’s busiest road, I saw a banner on a building facing the Lahore High Court: “Jews, Christians and Ahmadis are enemies of Islam.” We passed a patch of grass where a bronze statue of Queen Victoria had once stood. It has been replaced by a tall glass box containing a Quran.

That the Ahmadi movement agrees with every tenet of Islam, save the additional belief that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad came to the Muslim community as a promised messiah, is irrelevant. The legal system has left minorities such as Christians and Hindus, and within Islam, Ahmadis and Shiites, socially and politically isolated.

Routinely, the graffiti along Lahore’s stylish boulevards will proclaim that Shiites are infidels. More than 100 Christian houses were burned in a town in central Pakistan last year over a claim that a Christian had defiled the Quran. That same year, 37 Ahmadis were charged under the blasphemy laws.

Pakistan is the only Muslim nation to explicitly define who is or is not a “Muslim” under its constitution. This serves only one purpose: to embolden groups like the Pakistani Taliban who use the laws as justification to declare Ahmadis as “wajib ul qatl” or “worthy of death.” As long as the state continues to decide who is and is not a Muslim—a personal, private question—we will continue to see attacks on minorities and medieval banners in the public square.

Ms. Sethi is a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Journal this summer.

URL: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704198004575311043632237762.html

Why Pakistan's Ahmadi community is officially detested

Page last updated at 15:01 GMT, Wednesday, 16 June 2010 16:01 UK

Why Pakistan’s Ahmadi community is officially detested

By Mohammed Hanif
BBC News, Karachi

	More than 80 Ahmadis were killed last months in two atacks in Lahore

When a Pakistani Muslim applies for a passport or national ID card, they are asked to sign an oath that no Muslim anywhere in the world is asked to sign.

The oath goes like this: “I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad an impostor prophet. And also consider his followers, whether belonging to the Lahori or Qadiani group, to be non-Muslims.”

Like millions of other Pakistanis, I have signed this oath several times without giving much thought to exactly what Mr Ahmad stands for, or what the technical difference between Lahoris or Qadianis is. I want my passport, and if I have to sign up to a fatwa to get it, so be it.

But like millions of people from my generation I also remember that when I was growing up, the minority Ahmadi sect were considered just another Muslim sect.

Non-Muslims

Like scores of others I had friends who were Ahmadis. We played cricket together, and sometimes, when our parents ordered us off to the mosque, we even prayed side by side.

	Ahmadis are despised by many Pakistanis

Last month, when more than 90 Ahmadis were massacred in two mosques in Lahore, I remembered the precise moment in 1974 when it all began to change.

There were street protests by religious parties against Ahmadis demanding that they should be declared non-Muslims.

One day I saw some bearded activists standing outside a clothes merchant’s shop in our town, chanting anti-Ahmadi slogans and turning customers away, telling them that buying clothes from Ahmadis was haram - forbidden.

At the time I was learning to memorise the Koran from a very kind, mild-mannered teacher.

I asked him what exactly was wrong with the Ahmadis.

He explained to me that they didn’t believe that the Prophet Muhammad was the last and the final messenger.

I said OK, maybe that makes them kafirs, infidels, but who says that kafirs can’t sell cloth?

My teacher’s response was a full-handed slap, so sudden, so unexpected that it rang in my ears for days to come.

That same year Pakistan’s first elected parliament declared Ahmadis non-Muslims.

Then in 1984 Pakistan’s military dictator and self-appointed guardian of the faith General Zia-ul-Haq inserted that oath in the constitution that we are all required to sign.

Because of the new laws, Ahmadis have been sent to prison simply for using the Muslim greeting Assalamu alaikum, or putting a Koranic verse in a greeting card.

Heretic

Over the last three decades the hatred against Ahmadis has become so widespread that Pakistan is now embarrassed by the only Nobel laureate it has ever produced.

	Attacks on Ahmadis are beconing increasingly commonplace

Dr Abdus Salam Khan won the Nobel Prize for physics and, as a proud Pakistani, accepted his award in national dress.

But he was an Ahmadi so there is no monument to celebrate him, no universities named after him.

The word “Muslim” on his gravestone has been erased. Even the town he is buried in has been renamed in an attempt to erase our collective memory.

This hatred was evident in the reactions to the massacre.

TV channels were more obsessed with making sure that in their broadcasts Ahmadi mosques were called “places of worship”.

When you refuse to call a place of worship by its proper name, you are implying that it’s not a mosque, it’s not a church, it’s not a synagogue, it’s a place where godless people do godless things.

And all the various Islamic political parties, whose leaders often refuse to pray together, are united on this.

When Pakistan’s main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif used the phrase “our brothers” for the murdered Ahmadis, leaders from 11 political parties came together to condemn him and threatened to issue a fatwa declaring him a heretic.

Over the last three decades the siege has been so palpable that those Ahmadis who couldn’t afford to emigrate have taken to hiding their identity.

If you want to destroy someone in public life it’s enough to drop a hint that they are Ahmadi.

In the 1980s, the former chief minister of Punjab and current federal minister didn’t attend his own mother’s funeral because there were rumours that she was an Ahmadi.

When the funerals of the massacred Ahmadis took place there were no officials, no politicians present.

Pakistan’s liberal bloggers and some English-language columnists did write along the lines that Ahmadi blood is on our hands.

Others were adamant that it was yet another Friday, yet another massacre by the Pakistani Taliban, and we should just fight this sort of terrorism and leave the sectarian debates alone.

Two incidents in the past week made me realise how pathological our response was. At a vigil to mark the massacre, where a handful of people had turned up, a passer-by asked me “Are you an Ahmadi?” My own loud and aggressive denial surprised me.

Then an Ahmadi friend whose father survived the Lahore massacre wrote to me saying: “You know we have been living like this for decades. [Did] something like this have to happen for you to speak up?”

URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8744092.stm

Reaction: the response to the Ahmedi massacre

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Reaction: the response to the Ahmedi massacre

   by SADAF on 06 14th, 2010 |

“We are all under threat. They will kill us. They will kill us,” claimed Rubina Saigol, repeating the conversation with members of the Ahmedi community a few months ago. Saigol, an independent social researcher, said that the community members wanted to show her some case files on Ahmedis and talk about the threats publicly.

“I feel guilty and terrible that I didn’t write – partly because of fear.”

But before Saigol could gather up any courage to take any action – the threats had become a reality.

On May 28, militants attacked two Ahmedi houses of worship in Lahore, which resulted in the tragic death of more than 80 people and left more than a 100 injured. Within days, other militants attacked Lahore’s Jinnah Hospital where the injured were still recovering from the first attack.

The Ahmedi massacre has left everyone in shock and the Ahmedi community crippled with grief.

The Ahmedis have struggled for rights within India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Indonesia for many years.

Although the majority of the Pakistani population is Sunni – there is a growing percentage of people who are seriously questioning the Sharia laws and the constitution. The trend can be followed on local blogs and even the op-ed pages of local newspapers – the rhetoric challenges Sharia laws against the basic rights of a citizen.

Pakistan’s Sharia laws are based mainly on the Hanafi school of thought.

According to Sharia Law, an Ahmedi cannot be accepted as a Muslim or as part of an Islamic sect because one of the basic fundamentals of Islam is to accept Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as the last prophet in Islam – in Quranic verses he is referred to as the “Final Seal” (al-azhab:40).

In several interviews with religious scholars, from Sunni and Shia schools of thought in Cairo and Q’um in Iran agreed that Ahmedis were not a Muslim sect. They went as far as calling them, “heretics” and “infidels.” As well as, if a non-Muslim shows and preaches under a Muslim façade, then he or she must be charged, proven guilty, and punished in court according to Sharia law, a crime which is punishable by death (wajib-ul-qatl).

But one of the scholars in Cairo, who requested to stay anonymous, was quick to add that if a non-believer is a citizen of an Islamic state then he or she becomes the zami (responsibility) of the state. Therefore, it is the state’s responsibility to protect them more than the Muslim citizen, out of fear for violence against them.

“They should be treated with the utmost respect, because we, as Muslims, need to set an example for them,” he said. “As a Muslim, your responsibility is to follow the basics of Islam and lead a good life – violence of any type against anyone is not an example of leading a good life.”

This one scholar, who remains anonymous out of fear for the repercussions he could face, is not alone.

As soon as the attack hit the news, blogs went up everywhere in an uproar; some immediately condemned the brutal attack, others wrote malicious comments about Ahmedis claiming them to be wajib-ul-qatl (deserving of death), and some tried to explain the causes of the attack through religious, political and social analyses.

On the blog pkpolitics there were many harsh comments and the owners of the blog removed those comments and posted a warning to respondents on abusive language.

One of the more kinder comments on pkpolitics was, “Brother, The Qadyani religion should not be even be called ‘Ahemdi religion’, for you know that the Last Prophet Muhammad is exclusively mentioned by the name ‘Ahmed’ both in the Holy Quran and in the Bible (sic).”

Another respondent scolded back, “I cant believe my eyes, Instead of completely condemning the attack and humiliating the attackers, some are debating on the words used and about Qadyani sect or religion whatever…. no wonder Pakistan is heading towards its doom day by day… shame on us (sic).”

Tazeen Javed, winner of Best Humor Blog category for Pakistan’s first Annual Blog Awards, blogs at A Reluctant Mind wrote, a social aspect of the attack holding everyone accountable, event the public, for the attack in “We all have blood on our hands.”

The Waking Life blog posted, “Is it all worth?” questioning Muslims who asked for tolerance in other parts of the world, wrote, “Time to put things in perspective…Facebook may have partaken in blasphemy but there’s plenty of it going on in our cities and society. How about cleaning our own house first? (sic)”

The popular and controversial blog, Café Pyala, which sometimes uses profanity, condemned the attack in the political analysis “Original Sin:” “Truly, if ever there was short-sightedness among Pakistan’s establishment (and there are plenty of examples of it) this was it…The nurturing of extremist thought during Zia ul Haq’s (mis)rule and its repercussions in the shape of today’s barbaric attacks (and earlier targeting of Shias, Hindus and Christians) are a logical continuation of the original sin. (sic)”

Most editorials and columnists for print media did not have to directly respond to profanity like some online media blogs, however they condemned the attack, pointing out the government’s blatant disregard for protecting minorities, and feeding a culture of bigotry.

The Dawn editorial “Culture of Intolerance” wrote, “Religious minorities in Pakistan have not only been shunted to the margins of society but also face outright persecution on a regular basis…the state, meanwhile, remains largely unmoved by the plight of minorities — and that isn’t surprising either for it is a party to this persecution.”

Columnists did not try to hide the humiliation the government as well as the public should feel over the attacks.

Columnist Kamran Shafi, who writes for Dawn, wrote in A sad place, indeed that he recalled a time when there was no religious distinction, just Pakistani citizens. He stated, “The Ahmedis might be considered non-Muslim by the state; surely they are still Pakistani?”

Shafi added that an important member of the Ahmedi community told him that the compensation that was offered to the victims of the attack would be kindly refused and asked to be transferred over to the people of Hunza-Gojal for the relief work.

These voices of different generations and backgrounds of growing tolerance are currently at a grass-roots level, but they can still be heard, even in some political circles.

On the day of the attack, Punjab’s Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif held a press conference addressing the attack and the efforts of the police. Even though his offices had received reports on a threat to the Ahmedis several days prior to the attack.

While soon after the attacks, Interior Minister Rehman Malik was the only government official who personally went to visit the Ahmedi community to give condolences

Shahbaz Sharif has yet to visit the Ahmedi community since the attacks.

Although most recently, PML-N party leader Nawaz Sharif did condemn the attacks and named Ahmedis as “brothers” and “sisters.” Only for him to be threatened by religious leaders with an anti-Sharif campaign in the region.

If the public’s reaction has mobilised the government to react at all then it leads to the most important question: What is the next step?

Imam Shamsi Ali might have the answer.

“It is very difficult to accept the nature of the world we live in – part of this world is the freedom of expression. I oppose the idea (Ahmedi movement) but I cannot impose my ideas on anyone. I have no right to impose my ideas on anyone,” said Imam Ali.

Ali, who lived and studied Islamic Studies in Islamabad for seven years, is the leader for the 96th street mosque and runs the Islamic Cultural Center in New York.

“We need engagement. If we oppose those claims then we must have intellectual discourse. If we engage with Hindus, Christians, Jews, or Buddhists, then why cannot we talk to them?”

Ali, ultimately, feels that restricting the freedoms of a people is not the way of Islam, rather allowing people their freedom and showing tolerance is way for people to find the path to Islam.

Sadef A. Kully is a Reporter/Associate Producer for Dawn.com

©2010 DAWN Media Group. All rights reserved

URL: http://blog.dawn.com/2010/06/14/reaction-the-response-to-the-ahmedi-massacre/