GENEVA: United Nations experts on Thursday voiced grave concern at reports of surging discrimination and violence against Pakistan’s Ahmadi minority community, including extrajudicial killings and attacks on places of worship.
The Ahmadiyya sect, considered heretics by fundamentalist groups, has been persecuted for decades in Pakistan but threats and intimidation have risen in recent years.
“We are alarmed by ongoing reports of violence and discrimination against the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan,” said the nine independent experts, including the special rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions, on freedom of expression and on freedom of religion.
“Urgent measures are necessary to respond to these violent attacks and the broader atmosphere of hatred and discrimination which feeds it,” they said in a statement.
The experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations, highlighted a number of specific incidents over recent months.
Those included the extrajudicial killing of two Ahmadis in Saad Ullah Pur on July 8 and the killing on March 4 of the president of the Ahmadiyya community in Bahawalpur district.
They also noted reports of an alarming number of attacks on Ahmadi places of worship and cemeteries since the beginning of the year, including some that had led to the serious injury of worshippers.
The statement also highlighted a number of alleged arbitrary arrests of Ahmadi worshippers over religious holiday periods “to obstruct their participation in their religious practices.”
Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, and their faith is identical to mainstream Islam in almost every way.
But their belief that the movement’s founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was the “mahdi” or messiah has marked them as blasphemous unbelievers, particularly in Pakistan. There are around 500,000 Amadis in Pakistan according to their community leadership.
The constitution has branded them non-Muslims since 1974, and a 1984 law forbids them from claiming their faith as Islamic or openly practicing Islamic rituals.
“Ahmadis’ right to peacefully manifest their beliefs must be respected,” the experts insisted, warning that “judicial harassment serves to normalize violence against Ahmadis by non-State actors.”
They welcomed Pakistan National Assembly’s adoption last month of a resolution urging federal and provincial governments to ensure the safety and security of all Pakistani citizens including religious minorities.
But, they cautioned, “such good-faith efforts to counter discriminatory discourse will be ineffective unless they address its structural drivers, (including) blasphemy laws and discriminatory legal provisions.”
UN experts urge halt to violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan
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UN experts urge halt to violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan
- “We are alarmed by ongoing reports of violence and discrimination against the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan,” said the nine independent experts
- The experts highlighted a number of specific incidents over recent months
Pakistan says 34 militants killed in counterterror operations in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this week
- Security forces carried out a series of ‘high tempo intelligence-driven operations’ this week in the two provinces
- The counterterror operations take place amid surging tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces killed 34 militants this week in the southwestern Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces bordering Afghanistan, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday amid a surge in militant attacks in the country.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said security forces carried out a series of “high tempo intelligence-driven operations” this week in the two provinces. It said 26 militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) outfit were killed while eight militants were killed in Balochistan in the operations.
In the first counterterror operation on Tuesday, Pakistani forces targeted a TTP militant who was trying to enter the country in North Waziristan through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the ISPR said. Three TTP militants were killed in a second counterterror operation in Lakki Marwat district, the military added.
In the third counterterror operation, 10 TTP militants were killed in Bannu district while 12 others were gunned down in North Waziristan in another separate operation, the ISPR said.
“During the fifth engagement, own troops conducted an intelligence-based operation in the general area of Sambaza, Zhob District,” the military’s media wing said in a statement.
“After an intense fire exchange, eight terrorists belonging to Fitna Al Hindustan were successfully neutralized.”
Pakistan’s military uses the terms “Fitna Al-Khwarij” for the TTP and “Fitna Al Hindustan” for separatist militants in Balochistan. Islamabad alleges these militant groups are supported by India, a charge New Delhi has always denied.
The ISPR said security forces retrieved weapons and ammunition from the militants in Balochistan’s Zhob district, adding that they were involved in “terrorist activities” in the area.
“The security forces of Pakistan remain resolute and unwavering in their commitment to defend the nation’s frontiers,” the ISPR said.
Four police personnel killed
Separately, four police personnel were killed in KP’s district Bajaur on Wednesday after they were ambushed by unidentified gunmen.
The police personnel were on patrol duty when the gunmen opened fire on them, a statement from the chief minister’s office said.
“Such cowardly acts of terrorism cannot shake the resolve and morale of the police force,” Chief Minister Sohail Afridi was quoted as saying.
The counterterror operations take place amid surging tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Islamabad said it carried out strikes on alleged militant camps in Afghanistan on Saturday night, killing over 100 militants.
Afghanistan said the attacks violated its territorial sovereignty, accusing Islamabad of killing and wounding dozens of civilians.
Islamabad alleges militants based in Afghanistan are responsible for surging militant attacks inside Pakistani territory. Afghanistan rejects these allegations and urges Pakistan to focus on its security challenges instead of blaming Kabul.
