Gunmen desecrate Ahmadi graves in Lahore
Pakistani news photographers take pictures of desecrated graves at the minority Ahmadi community graveyard in Lahore. -AFP Photo
LAHORE: Gunmen on Monday desecrated graves of Ahmadis in Lahore, members of the minority community said, in the latest act of intimidation and religious hatred against the beleaguered group.
More than a dozen masked men broke into an Ahmadi graveyard in the Model Town area of Lahore before dawn and after tying up the security guard and caretaker vandalised graves, community spokesman Salimud Din said.
The attackers shattered the tomb stones of about 120 graves and left, he said.
Din said police took no action after similar incidents a few months ago in the eastern city of Faisalabad and the central town of Lodhran.
“The government has failed to protect our human rights and Ahmadis’ life and property is not safe in Pakistan,” Din said.
Shahid Ataullah, a local Ahmadi elder, said the attackers came around 2:00am (2100 GMT) and threatened the guard and caretaker with “dire consequences” and said that they were annoyed because Islamic verses were engraved on the tombstones.
Ataullah told AFP that the attackers told the guards they were from militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Taliban, though there was no claim of responsibility.
Members of the community were discussing whether or not to lodge a formal complaint with police, he said.
“We are under lots of pressure and the objective seems to be to harass us,”Ataullah said.
Police said that they were not aware of the incident.
“There is no such thing in our knowledge. We will take action when someone files a report about the incident,” local police station chief Idrees Qureshi told AFP.
In May 2010, nearly 100 people were killed in Lahore after militants stormed two Ahmadi places of worship launching gun and grenade attacks.
Gunmen later raided the hospital where victims were being treated, killing four people in a shoot out.
On one hand they say ahmadis r non muslims and r not allowed to use the Quranic verses.on the other hand look what these so called true muslims have done. Just look at all the shattered tomb stones lying on the ground with the Quranic verses still written on them. Don’t u think this is the BAYHURMATI(insult)
of the verses and those who r responsible should be punished as well.
“and then thet came for me”
There is no other outcome possible of the hate and intolerance that we have been preaching in the name of Islam for the last several decades.
Manimals …..There is a theory in science that human race will further split into two types. One will have superior minds and sense and others will be inferior in all aspects…..may be these are the ancestors of inferiors……..
pervaiz minhas
Three tragedies in one: vile desecration; police and government impotence; and judging by some of the votes shown here, there are people ready to shower rose petals on those responsible for it.
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Sir : i have an Ahmadi friend and i find him to be more patriotic and loving towards pakistan than myself despite repeated cases of abuses towards Ahmadis in Pakistan. I hang my head in shame !!!
I don’t understand this situation at all. But these people are so brutal and they don’t seem to understand their religion or anyone’s for that matter.
I suppose your government either doesn’t care, or maybe they’re just scared to do anything. If they police live nearby, they are probably afraid too – or maybe they don’t care either.
Fear, in the end, will give the evil ones control of your country, a lack of care will also destroy a country won’t it? I mean the less you care, the more they will take.
I’m sorry this happened. Here in America graves are sometimes kicked over, mostly due to angry teenagers, maybe gangs or just unruly kids. But I’m not aware of anyone thinking they are acting for a loving God and then doing such a thing.
In the land of pure only pure individual would not vandalised places of worships and grayards of any sect.. It appears to me a punch of few extremists who had nothing to do any thing in life but only to find soft target to get fame and honour from their masters, are involved in horrible act.. Who ever is behind this it is diplorable by any standard. They are taking Pakistan backward.
this is pathetic, our hatred and lack of respect for others will self consume us.
It already is consuming us.
Just a question to all. How do u treat a person who loves someone u adore? Allow me to answer? We also love that person. we respect him or her just because of the fact that he has shown affection to our loved ones. Ok fine, ahmadi’s are non-Muslims….but they recite the same verses of Holy Quran. write the same verses on their graves, recite the same Kalama, i.e….. profess their love for our beloved GOD, his holy book & prophet (pbuh), how can they or this act of ahmadi’s be hated? Is Islam our personal property? Have we been given the right to own it. If yes then by whom?
And how can one Muslim desecrate the verses of Holy Quran? How can we stoop so low? This is a bigger blasphemy compared to ones done by non-believers . A sad day … I hope we realize this otherwise there will be no turning back & no escaping the wrath of GOD.
I have read in history book that Pakistan created for muslims but how come muslims killing muslims in Islamic country made for muslims only..??
Pakistan was separated from India citing the reason that muslims can’t live with hindus but now muslims can’t live with muslims..??? Very Ironical..!!!!!
Bro…..in Pakistan police cant help the living ones how can we even expect from them to give security to the dead ones. And then proudly we say.. we are Muslims. Why do we shout against blasphemy when we ourselves are doing it? double standards? Those who did this wont get peace not in this world and neither in their graves.
Is this the Islam which Holy Prophet (saw) brought. He himself stood in respect of a dead Jew when his funeral was passing in front of our Prophet, but we who follow him give this respect to the deceased ones, and after such acts we shout that Muslims are peace loving. Just for one second ask yourself in heart, what would Holy Prophet and his companions do if they were in our place. May God have mercy on us all.
I doubt if Sharifs will do anything to catch these criminals who are thier natural allies and give them explanary punishement.
I am truly ashamed to read that my Muslim brothers participated in the shameful act of desecrating an Ahmedyia cemetery. All I want to request is “My brothers, at least let the deceased lie in peace”.
people who carried this out are not our brothers. they are a self inflicted curse to our nation.
As a Muslim, this really hurts to read about these kinds of shameful and shocking acts committed against minorities in our beloved country, Pakistan. In the name of Islam these misguided and ignorant people are committing crime with impunity. I request administration to swiftly bring these people and police personnel to justice. Ahmadis are our Pakistani brethren and above all they are human beings. I beg all who live in Pakistan to please show mercy, love and respect towards all minorities and their worship places as this is what Islam teaches. Also, I would to like express my deepest sorrow to the Ahmadia Community at large and especially those whose loved ones graves were desecrated. Being a follower of Islam, I want to tell Ahmadia community that I am extremely sorry that they have to go through this painful situation because of some bigots. May Allah forgive us and guide all of us to follow the path of true Islam, a religion of peace and harmony.
Thank you my Pakistani brother, thank you very much, for your kind and sympathetic words expressing the finest feelings of regard, respect and brotherhood under universal norms of humanism for my Ahmadiyya community, a hard hit, constantly persecuted community since 1953, passing through a long laborious process of victimization, which ultimately, in Nov. 1974, led to their declaration by the National Assembly as non-Muslim minority community. This not-sensible act of a political assembly, the like of which was never done by any other state or worldly body, in human history, but it made ‘extremism’ and ‘intolerance’ as the basis of law of the land under 1973 constitution as far as Ahmadi citizens are concerned. All this is a very painful story of the constitutionally created, permanently torched minority community of Ahmadis. I really feel sorry for making these painful references as I think I should have kept myself confined only to thank Mr. Farooq for his preciously kind words for the pained brothers-in-faith of my peaceful, peace-loving, Jama’at-e-Ahmadiyya of Pakistan.
Even the dead are not at peace in Pakistan. Is it due to religion or not knowing their own religion. From an outsider it looks that their leaders are preaching this hatred to fellow human beings.
Embarrassing. The law enforcement is asleep as they have yet to capture a single criminal and charge them in any case.
Another feather in the cap of shameless Noora League govt in Punjab. Noora Sharif is busy advocating kalabagh dam just to get few more votes in Punjab while incidents like these show toal lawlessness in Lahore. Shame on Noora Sharif. May God save us from Noora and his shameless brother
Shame, un human act.
Our heads must hang in shame.These graves have buried in them the citizens of our country. We are not human . We are not even animals. It is no fault of the community; it is our fault and that our impotent rulers(must not call them lraders) who are perpetually bent upon only warming their pockets. Apologies are not going to be of any consequence. Somehow some one must find ways and means to get rid of the extrene bigotru in the country. Some hoe a group of so called Ulema proclaim as loudly as they can that this is not Islam.This is not what Allah and our Rasool wanted us to do. A FALSE HOPE; WE ARE NOT UP TO IT. We are not upto any thing like TOLERANCE.
Look at the irony of our people. The other so called big media groups of our country (Jang etc) have not even bothered to report that incident in their publications. Kudos to Dawn and BBC for being impartial at least in reporting it.
No one knows who does it but its easy to blame it on Taliban.
Read the article again. The perpetrators stated to the captured guard and caretaker who they were.
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Actually, you are not so lonely in this Land of the Pure.
Police say they are not aware of any such activity. What a shame…
Who will ever dare even to speak for Ahmadis in such a situation. It is like encouraging those hooligans by law enforcing authorities themselves. May Allah have mercy on us. Not even the dead are safe in this land of the pure.
the purity has ceased to exist in the land of ‘pure’..
Who are these people who have nothing better to do? Do they feel they achieved entry to Jannat with this behaviour? Very soon, they will also be underground if some one cares to bury them and will probably have no katba. What did they gain from this, I am unable to comprehend. May Allah guide them in the path of true Islam. Ameen.
Is there no law against the hate crimes, in Pakistan?
There are laws against the hate crimes but are used mostly against the minorities not the majority.