A video has gone viral on social media wherein a group of Islamists are seen vandalising one Ahmadi Mosque located in the Saddar area in Karachi, Pakistan. The incident reportedly took place on Thursday, February 2.
In the video of the incident, it can be seen that three masked men are standing atop the structure and smashing the tomb and the minarets with hammers. A large crowd has assembled to watch the men vandalise the structure. Towards the end of the video, a man can be seen trying to desecrate the kalima inscribed on it. According to reports, the incident occurred in front of several police officers, who did nothing to stop the miscreants from vandalising the Ahmadi place of worship.
After Punjab, demolishing the minarets of Ahmadi places of worship started in Karachi. Today, a group of people demolished the minarets of an Ahmadi place of worship in Saddar. Two weeks ago, another Ahmadi worship place’s minarets were also demolished in Martin Quarters. pic.twitter.com/X2EnUAtnVV
— Zia Ur Rehman (@zalmayzia) February 2, 2023
This attack was reportedly similar to that carried out in the Martin Quarters area in Pakistan on January 18, 2023. Pakistani media outlet Dawn then reported that Zaheer Ahmed, a member of the Ahmadiyya Centre, lodged the complaint, stating that he was present in his private office in Clifton at around 3:45 pm on Wednesday (Jan 18) when he received information that some 10-12 people wielding sticks and other objects had gathered at the centre’s gate and were chanting slogans.
They scaled the centre’s wall and ransacked it, as well as damaging the minaret (tower), he said, adding that by the time he arrived, the attackers had fled.
Ahmadis in Pakistan represent a persecuted minority and the exclusion of Ahmadis is even enshrined in the constitution of Pakistan. Ahmadis have also been excluded from the Pakistani government’s minority commission aimed at safeguarding the rights of the country’s minorities. An estimated 4 million Ahmadis face severe abuse and discrimination along with other minority communities like Hindus, Sikhs and Christians.
According to the Pakistani constitution, Ahmadis can’t call themselves Muslims, and they can’t call their place of worship mosques. Moreover, their places of worship can’t look like a masjid or mosque, and they can’t have a structure like minarets. Moreover, Ahmadis also can’t write the Kalima-e-Tayyiba on its walls.
For this reason, mob violence and killings against the Ahmadiyya community have become increasingly common in Pakistan.
Last year in the month of September, the Ahmadi community in Pakistan’s Punjab province sought justice from the Pakistani government after Islamists allegedly desecrated sixteen graves at a cemetery for placing Islamic symbols like verses from the Quran on gravestones.
On May 19, one Ishfaq Ahmed’s grave was desecrated in Peshawar. A 36-year-old Ahmadi man was brutally murdered in front of his two children.
Similarly in February 2022, nearly 50 graves belonging to the Ahmadi community were allegedly desecrated by the local police and Maulanas for using Islamic symbols on gravestones at a cemetery in Punjab, Pakistan.
