Home Media Reports 2008 5 Ahmadis killed over faith in ’07

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

5 Ahmadis killed over faith in ’07

* Ahmadiyya Community annual report says Ahmadis being kept away from polls

By Ali Waqar

LAHORE: Five Ahmadis were murdered in 2007 because of their faith and 36 faced charges and prosecution in faith-related cases, according to an annual report of the Ahmadiyya Community of Pakistan.

“The year 2007 was no different for the Ahmadiyya Community in Pakistan than the preceding 23 years,” the report said in the foreword.

Elections: It said the Election Commission had promulgated special procedures to ensure that Ahmadis “dissociate themselves” from the elections and said the community was being discriminated against despite the policy of joint electorate.

The Apostasy Bill submitted to the National Assembly by clerics from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal had special provisions to implicate Ahmadis, the report said. The Ahmadiyya Community was not allowed to hold its “traditional annual conference” at Rabwah, it said, but its opponents were allowed three major conferences during the year in the same city. It said police and the administration “defiled” an Ahmadi graveyard near Lahore “to placate a few mullahs”. Ahmadi schools and colleges were not denationalised, it said, despite the government’s policy to denationalise educational institutions.

According to the report, two Ahmadi children, aged 8 and 11, were charged for being on the mailing list of an Ahmadiyya children’s magazine. A dead Ahmadi was “deliberately” charged under a faith-based law that prescribed a 10-year imprisonment, it said. It said 22 Ahmadis were charged with blasphemy, and 24 under laws aimed specifically at Ahmadis.

Source : www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\02\06\story_6-2-2008_pg7_13