At least five FIRs were registered against Ahmadi minority community members for performing Eid-Al-Adha rituals, including sacrificing animals, across the Punjab province of Pakistan.
The cases were filed on different dates following Eid al Adha which was celebrated across the globe on June 29, however, the case came to light on Sunday.
According to the Dawn, a Pakistani English-language newspaper that was launched in British India in 1941, two cases were registered at the Saddar Gojra police station in Toba Tek Singh, while the other cases were filed at the Saddar Shahkot police station in Nankana Sahib, Roshanwala police station in Faisalabad and Badami Bagh police station in Lahore.
Ahmadi Muslims taken into custody
In one of the two FIRs registered at the Gojra police station in Toba Tek Singh, the complainant alleged that on the second day of Eid, compliant spotted Ahmadi citizens preparing to sacrifice animals and tried to stop them from “committing a crime”.
The complaint further claimed that it was an act to hurt the sentiments of Muslims. It also called for taking legal action against the persons.
Another FIR was registered at the same police station. In this case, the complainant alleged that on the second day of Eid, two members of the Ahmadi community were sacrificing animals.
The third case in Nankana Sahib was registered on the complaint of an assistant sub-inspector. The officer alleged that he had received a phone call from an anonymous person who informed him about the Ahmadi community’s preparations for sacrificing animals in a village.
After investigation, the officer found members of the Ahmadi community sacrificing animals.
The fourth case was registered in Faisalabad on the complaint of a right-wing member of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan on the third day of Eid claiming he saw a member of the Ahmadi community sacrificing animals. Following this, the police team rushed to the spot and the accused fled the scene.
The fifth FIR registered in Lahore claimed several members of the Ahmadi community in the neighbourhood were sacrificing animals.
The FIRs were registered under section 298-C (also known as the blasphemy law) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which prohibits the Ahmadi community from calling themselves Muslims or preaching and propagating their faith.
Section 298-C PPC reads as “Any person of the Quadiani group or the Lahori group (who call themselves ‘Ahmadis’ or by any other name), who directly or indirectly, poses himself as a Muslim, or calls, or refers to, his faith as Islam, or preaches or propagates his faith, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.”
Following the series of police raids, a spokesperson of the Ahmadi community, Aamir Mehmood, expressed his disappointment and cited last year’s decision by the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan which stated that it was wrong to prevent minorities from practising their religious beliefs.
He questioned the police for the arrest of his community members. He urged for dismissing the “baseless” cases, adding that the community had spent this year’s Eid “in fear”.
SC judgement
The Pakistan SC judgement, penned by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah read, “To deprive a non-Muslim (minority) of our country of holding his religious beliefs, to obstruct him from professing and practising his religion within the four walls of his place of worship is against the grain of Constitution and repugnant to the spirit and character of Islamic Republic”.
The order stated: “It also deeply bruises and disfigures human dignity and the right to privacy of a non-Muslim minority, who like all other citizens of this country enjoy the same rights and protections under the Constitution.”
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