A man was allegedly killed when a few hundred workers of a religiopolitical party stormed a place of worship belonging to the Ahmadi community in Karachi’s Saddar area on Friday to prevent it from observing religious rituals, according to the police.
Speaking to Dawn.com, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Syed Asad Raza said: “[Around] 400 Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) workers gathered at the hall near the mobile market.”
He said the police were already deployed there in the wake of similar incidents in Shah Latif, Surjani and Khokhrapar areas of the metropolis. DIG Raza said the police, Rangers, and district administration took swift action and provided protection to the Ahmadi community members present inside the place of worship.
However, he said that an incident occurred near the auto parts market, located near the community hall, where “a man was allegedly beaten up by the TLP workers,” adding that he was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
The DIG said the Ahmadi community claimed the deceased as their member who was associated with the place of worship. “The police are ascertaining the veracity of the claims while CCTV footage is also being obtained,” he said.
The Ahmadi community spokesperson Amir Mehmood told Dawn.com that, “The deceased, who was a known figure of the community, was passing through the area around 100-150 meters away from the place of worship when TLP members recognised him and began beating him, leading to his death.”
Later, Preedy Station House Officer (SHO) Shabbir Husain confirmed to Dawn.com that a man, identified as Laeeq Cheema, 46, was “filming the TLP workers near Hashu Centre when the mob started beating him and killed him.”
The SHO confirmed that the deceased belonged to the Ahmadi community. “We called a prison van to move around 45-50 members of the community inside the community hall to a safe place,” he said.
Mehmood, however, said that he was not aware that the deceased was shooting a video of the mob.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it was “appalled” by the incident, which it denounced as a “failure of law and order” that was a “stark reminder of the continued complicity of the state in the systematic persecution of a beleaguered community”.
It said the perpetrators of the attack in Saddar must be swiftly traced, arrested and prosecuted “without caving in to pressure from the far right to release those responsible”.
Last month, the HRCP said it had observed a growing trend of mob-led attacks on homes of families belonging to religious minorities, as well as their places of worship.
The HRCP also spoke of Ahmadis’ “arbitrary detention”, “desecration of their graves” and the “vulnerability of Hindu and Christian women” to forced conversion.
The report, titled Under Siege: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2023-24, said over 750 persons were in prison on charges of blasphemy, as of October last year. It documented at least four faith-based killings, three of which targeted the Ahmadi community.
A key finding of the report is that disinformation on social media was the spark behind most of the registered blasphemy cases.
HRCP observed an “increasing weaponisation of blasphemy laws against Ahmadis”, with cases often initiated by law enforcement officials themselves.
Additional reporting by Imran Gabol.
