Police in Pakistan demolished and raided two Ahmadi worship places and demolished their minarets in the nation’s Punjab province, an organisation representing the minority group mentioned on Friday (April 11, 2025).
Both worship places are positioned in the Nankana Sahib district, some 80 km from Lahore.
According to the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JAP), Punjab police personnel raided each worship places on Thursday night time and demolished the minarets and mehrabs underneath strain from a radical Islamist celebration.
“Extremists group Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had issued an ultimatum to the local administration, demanding the demolition of the Admadi worship places in Sangla Hill, district Nankana Sahib,” it mentioned in a press release.
In response, a gathering was held between native Ahmadi representatives and Assistant Commissioner Sangla Hill Zaheer Ahmed together with police officer Ijaz Ahmed Dogar, throughout which the officers urged the Ahmadi group to voluntarily take away the architectural options — minarets and mehrabs — themselves.
The Ahmadi group leaders refused, stating that they might neither demolish the buildings themselves nor enable anybody else to take action. They mentioned if the administration meant to proceed, they need to present a written authorized order from a courtroom of legislation, it mentioned.
However, the police raided each worship places and demolished them at Hamraj Pura and Kot Rehmat Khan. “No written order from the court of law was shown while demolishing the structures,” it mentioned. JAP spokesperson Aamir Mehmood strongly condemned the demolition of the Ahmadi worship places, saying it’s deeply regrettable that to appease an extremist group, the police have illegally demolished the minarets and mehrabs of two Ahmadi places of worship. “Under the guise of religious sentiments, extremist elements are intensifying their persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, while the authorities have utterly failed to provide them protection,” he mentioned.
Although Ahmadis take into account themselves Muslims, Pakistan’s Parliament in 1974 declared the group as non-Muslims. A decade later, they weren’t simply banned from calling themselves Muslims however have been additionally barred from practising features of Islam.
Under the legislation, the Ahmadis can not assemble or show any image that identifies them as Muslims similar to constructing minarets or domes on mosques or publicly writing verses from the Quran.
However, the Lahore High Court dominated that places of worship constructed previous to a selected ordinance issued in 1984 are authorized and therefore shouldn’t be altered or razed down.
Published – April 11, 2025 10:01 pm IST
