According to Jamaat Ahmadiyya Punjab spokesperson Amir Mahmood, unidentified persons desecrated 16 graves of Ahmadis in a walled communal cemetery in Faisalabad district.
There have been several incidents in Pakistan in which the graves of members of the Ahmadi community were desecrated. (Representative image/Reuters)
Sixteen tombs of Ahmadi community in Pakistan’s Punjab province have been desecrated allegedly by religious extremists for using Islamic symbols on grave stones, a spokesman for the minority community said on Wednesday.
According to Jamaat Ahmadiyya Punjab spokesperson Amir Mahmood, on August 22, unidentified persons desecrated 16 graves of Ahmadis in a walled communal cemetery at Chak 203 RB Manawala in Faisalabad district, about 150 km from Lahore.
Many tombstones in the community cemetery have Islamic verses engraved on them.
Talking to PTI, Mehmood said that this graveyard is 75 years old and no such incident had happened before. He alleged that Muslim clerics of the region were spreading hatred against Ahmadis, resulting in desecration of their graves at the hands of religious extremists.
He said, “This act has caused immense grief among the bereaved families who are looking to the government for justice. This act is not only illegal but clearly against all human values.”
There have been several incidents in different parts of Pakistan in which the graves of members of the Ahmadi community were desecrated by religious fanatics in the past. “A total of 185 Ahmadi tombs were desecrated this year alone,” Mahmud said.
He added, “This constant persecution” testifies to the complete disregard for the rights of the Ahmadi community and creates a sense of deep insecurity among the minority people. He urged the government to take effective steps to stop this attack and hold the culprits accountable.
In 1974 the Parliament of Pakistan declared the Ahmadi community to be non-Muslim. A decade later, he was banned from calling himself a Muslim. He is banned from preaching and traveling to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.
In Pakistan, out of 220 million population, about 10 million are non-Muslims. Minorities in conservative Muslim-majority Pakistan often complain of persecution by extremists.
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