Pakistan: Ahmadiya community fears attacks, calls for protection

An Ahmadiya community spokesperson has raised the issue of rising attacks on people of the community and has called for protection regarding the same

Islamabad: An Ahmadiya community spokesperson has raised the issue of rising attacks on people of the community and has called for protection regarding the same.

According to Dawn, a representative for the Ahmadiya community has claimed that the religious extremists intend to attack the worship places of the Ahmadis at two places in Sangla Hill tehsil of Nankana Sahib district.

---

Nankana Sahib District is a district in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Amer Mahmood claimed in a news release issued on Sunday in Faisalabad that the police were forcing the Ahmadis to conceal or remove the minarets from their houses of worship rather than defending them, Dawn reported.

Instead of putting pressure on them and working against them, he asked the police to immediately focus on protecting the Ahmadis.

Notably, the Ahmadi community in Pakistan lives as second-class citizens. The anti-Ahmadi Muslim sentiment is powerful in Pakistan. It is amongst one of the most persecuted minority communities in the country.

Several rights groups have expressed alarm and a strong sense of outrage time and again at the continued exodus of religious minority communities in the country and said that the state has consistently failed to allay the concerns of these communities despite repeated reminders by civil society.