All attacks must be investigated immediately and those responsible brought to justice  

Pakistan: increase in targeted killings of Ahmadis  

photo_camera Aumento de los asesinatos selectivos de áhmadis 

The Pakistani authorities must urgently and impartially investigate the rise in violent attacks against members of the Ahmadi religious community, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said today. The authorities must take appropriate legal action against those responsible for threats and violence against the Ahmadis.  

Since July 2020, there have been at least five apparently targeted killings of members of the Ahmadi community. In only 2 of the cases did police arrest a suspect. The Pakistani authorities have long played down, and sometimes even encouraged, violence against Ahmadis, whose rights to freedom of religion and belief are not respected in Pakistani law.  

"There are few communities in Pakistan that have suffered as much as the Ahmadis," said Omar Waraich, Amnesty International's South Asia Director. "The recent wave of killings tragically underlines not only the seriousness of the threats they face, but also the cruel indifference of the authorities, who have failed to protect the Ahmadi community and punish the perpetrators.

All attacks must be investigated immediately and those responsible brought to justice   

On 20 November, Dr Tahir Mahmood, 31, was shot dead by an alleged teenage assailant as he opened the door of his house in Nankana Sahib district, Punjab. Mahmood's father and two of his uncles were injured in the attack. Police reported that the suspect "confessed to assaulting the family over religious differences. 

Recently, there have been several attacks in the city of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. On 9 November Mahmoob Khan, 82, was shot dead while waiting at the bus station. On 6 October, two men on a motorbike stopped the car of Dr Naeemuddin Khattak, 57, a professor at the Government College of Science, and shot him five times to death. His family said he had a "heated discussion on a religious issue" with a colleague the day before. The Yama'at-e-Ahmadi, a community organisation, issued a statement saying that Khattak had received threats before and was attacked because of his faith.  

On 12 August, Meraj Ahmed, 61 years old, was shot dead while closing his shop in Peshawar. On 29 July, a 19-year-old alleged assailant killed Tahir Ahmad Naseem, 57, inside a high security court room. Naseem was facing trial on blasphemy charges. In a video that circulated on social networks, the suspect claims that Naseem was a "blasphemer.  

Successive Pakistani governments have failed to protect the human rights and security of the Ahmadiyya community. The criminal code explicitly discriminates against religious minorities and attacks the Ahmadis by prohibiting them from "impersonating Muslims, either indirectly or directly. Ahmadis are prohibited from declaring or propagating their faith publicly, building mosques or calling for prayer according to Islamic ritual.   

Authorities arbitrarily arrest, detain and charge Ahmadis with blasphemy and other crimes because of their religious beliefs. Police have often been complicit in harassment and false charges against Ahmadis or have failed to intervene to stop violence against Ahmadis. The government's failure to address the religious persecution of the Ahmadis has encouraged violence against them in the name of religion.  

"Pakistan was part of the consensus in the UN General Assembly that required States to take active steps to ensure that persons belonging to religious minorities can fully and effectively exercise all their human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination and in full equality before the law," said Ian Seiderman, Legal and Policy Director of the International Commission of Jurists. "The Pakistani government has completely failed to do so in the case of the Ahmadis," he added.  

The Government of Pakistan also promotes discriminatory practices against the Ahmadis. For example, all Pakistani Muslim citizens who apply for passports are required to sign a declaration explicitly stating that they consider the Founder of the Ahmadi Community an "impostor" and that they consider the Ahmadis to be non-Muslims.  

All attacks must be investigated immediately and those responsible brought to justice 

Pakistani laws against the Ahmadiyya community violate Pakistan's international legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Pakistan ratified in 2010, including the rights to freedom of conscience, religion, expression and association, and to profess and practice one's religion.  

Independent experts of the UN Human Rights Council, including the UN Special Rapporteurs on freedom of religion or belief and the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, have previously expressed concern about the persecution of the Ahmadi community in Pakistan.  

"The federal and provincial governments of Pakistan must take immediate legal and policy steps to eliminate the widespread and rampant discrimination and social exclusion faced by the Ahmadi community in Pakistan," said Patricia Gossman, associate director for Asia at Human Rights Watch. "The government must repeal the blasphemy law and all anti-Ahmadi provisions," she said.  

More in Politics