Islamabad, June 14: With discrimination against the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan continuing, the global human rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged the Punjab government to immediately release three Ahmadiyyas, who have been arrested to prevent them from sacrificing animals during the upcoming festival of Eidul Azha.
Amnesty also asked the Punjab government to ensure that the minority Ahmadiyya community is provided protection, particularly during Eidul Azha, so as to ensure they are able to peacefully exercise their religious beliefs.
It also pointed out that the preventive arrest of the three men in Chakwal, for a one-month period, came days after the targeted killing of two men from the Ahmadiyya community in Mandi Bahauddin on June 8.
“Pakistan: The ‘preventive detention’ of three members of the Ahmadiyya community in Chakwal to stop them from engaging in religious rites during the upcoming Eid al-Adha is a gross violation of individual’s rights to liberty and freedom of belief and religion,” Amnesty International stated on X.
The three men were arrested by the Chakwal district administration for a one month sentence, to prevent them from participating in the sacrificial ritual during the festival of Eidul Azha.
Chakwal’s Deputy Commissioner Quratul Ain Malik issued three separate orders for the detention of the three men on June 10 and the police later arrested them and sent them to Jhelum prison. All three men are natives of Dulmial village, which witnessed a mob attack on the mosque of the Ahmadiyya community in December 2016 resulting in the death of two persons.
The place of worship, a historic mosque built in the middle of the 19th century, had been sealed by the local administration after the attack with its fate now uncertain. While the Ahmadiyya community are also a sub-section of Muslims, the Pakistani constitution does not consider them Muslim and thus they are also targets of frequent discrimination and hate crimes.
The matter of their arrest was discussed in the District Intelligence Committee held on June 10 which unanimously recommended that in order to prevent the sectarian conflict as well as law and order situation, the three persons be detained.
A spokesperson of the Jamaat-e-Ahmadya said the three persons were called for a meeting with the police officials and the assistant commissioner Choa Saidan Shah regarding the upcoming Eidul Azah on June 17.
“There was also the presence of the complainants (opponents of the Ahmadya community) in that meeting. Immense pressure was placed on the Ahmadiya delegation not to perform the Qurbani. Furthermore, while being harassed they were told to submit a surety bond stating that neither them nor any other Ahmadi in the district will perform Qurbani”, he said.
