Pakistan: Conference incites hatred against Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Islamabad: Speeches inciting hatred and calling for systematic discrimination against Ahmadi Muslims were made during the Annual 'Khatm-e-Nubuwwat' conference in Pakistan organised by the Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat organisation, which witnessed participation of 18,000 to 20,000 attendees, a report has detailed.

Jamaat-e-Islami's former leader Sirajul Haq, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Hafiz Hamdullah, Pakistan Ulema Council chairman Tahir Ashrafi and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz's husband Muhammad Safdar and others attended the conference, according to a report in Spanish media outlet Atalayar.

During the conference, Muhammad Ismail said that the campaign would continue until not a single Ahmadi remained in Pakistan. The resolutions during the conference called for banning the burial of Ahmadis in Muslim cemeteries, boycott of business and products and the exclusion of the minority community from public employment or institutional responsibility, according to the report.

In his address, Muhammad Safdar emphasised that judges, members of the Armed forces and lawyers who had represented Ahmadis must certify belief or be removed from the Ministry of Justice. The speakers also demanded removal of Islamic architectural elements of Ahmadi mosque in Lahore.

These events violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which ban advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, the Atalayar report stated.

In September, a leading international human rights organisation expressed grave concern over escalating violence against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan, saying Ahmadis continue to face discrimination, intimidation, restrictions on their religious practices and hate campaigns across the country.

Highlighting the atrocities against Ahmadis, the UK-based International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) said that an Ahmadi father and his son were shot by unidentified assailants in Sargodha city of Pakistan’s Punjab province. It said that during the attack on the late evening of September 19, the father sustained three to four gunshot wounds, including serious injuries to his jaw and neck area, while his son suffered a gunshot injury to his arm.

The rights body noted that the shooting came against the backdrop of an increasingly hostile environment for the community, including an anti-Ahmadi propaganda campaign documented across Sargodha.

It stated that earlier in September, banners and posters carrying openly hostile anti-Ahmadi messaging were reported and documented in public spaces across the city, including material bearing slogans such as “We Hate Qadianiat” (a religious slur).

The IHRC warned that widespread public display of such rhetoric was fueling an increasingly hostile environment for an already vulnerable religious community.

“The sequence of events in Sargodha is deeply concerning. Public anti-Ahmadi propaganda has appeared across the city. Members of the community have reportedly faced threats. Now an Ahmadi father and son have been shot while returning home. These developments require an urgent and effective response from the authorities,” the rights body stated.

“When inflammatory rhetoric and threats against a religious community are allowed to proliferate without effective intervention, there is a serious risk that an already hostile environment will deteriorate further. No individual should have to fear being attacked because of their religious identity,” it added.

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