Islamabad, June 20: In a glaring case of religious intolerance and human rights violation, an Ahmadiyya community man was arrested in Pakistan Punjab’s Gojra village on Eidal Azha day (Monday) on the charge of “portraying himself as a Muslim and sacrificing a goat like Muslims”.
The incident happened in Chak 312-JB, Khattowali, and the complainant was a member of the Islamist Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan’s district emir Mohsin Raza Naqshbandi.
He claimed in his FIR registered under section 298-C of PPC that he was informed that an Ahmadiyya community man was sacrificing an animal in his home in his village and when he and two witnesses reached there and stopped him from doing so, he (the Ahmadiyya man) claimed that he was a Muslim, Dawn reported.
He said the “accused sacrificed the goat and by this act he hurt the sentiments of Muslims and committed an extreme abuse of Islamic rituals by claiming himself a Muslim.”
On his complaint, police immediately arrested the ‘accused’ and took into custody the goat meat and hide, choppers, rope and the chopping block.
In a press statement issued in Faisalabad, the Jamaat Ahmadiyya spokesperson Amir Mahmood condemned the incident of alleged harassment of his community’s man in Gojra.
He termed it a clear violation of a Supreme Court order which allowed all non-Muslims to practice their religion.
In a related incident, police in Baghbanpura in Punjab province have arrested an Ahmadi doctor, Tahir Ahmad, for keeping a goat at his home on Eidal Azha day, the community has claimed.
In a statement, community spokesperson Aamir Mahmood said that Dr Ahmad was allegedly arrested for raising a goat. “The police arrested him on June 17 and his whereabouts are still unknown,” he said.
Mahmood said that the doctor’s family was worried and they had been “denied access” to their loved one.
According to the spokesperson, another Ahmadi, Zaheer Ahmad, of Khokharki in Gujranwala, was taken into custody by the Jinnah Road Police Station on Eid day without any warrant or detention order. “Since then, the police have not informed anyone about his whereabouts, causing worry to his family.”
During Eid, an Ahmadiyya place of worship was allegedly destroyed by unidentified men in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir’s Kotli district on the first Eidal Azha day.
According to the minority community, more than 150 people attacked their place of worship in the wee hours of Monday.
Jamaat-i-Ahmadiyya Pakistan official Amir Mahmood has been quoted as saying that 36 members of the minority Ahmadi community had been arrested for offering sacrificial animals for slaughter on Eidal Azha in the country, mostly in Punjab.
He blamed the TLP for fanning hatred against Ahmadis and pressuring police to stop members of the minority community from performing their religious rituals.
