An Ahmadi lawyer was on Thursday detained in Karachi for having the 'Syed' prefix in his name, according to a spokesperson of the community.
Syed Ali Ahmad Tariq – an advocate of the Supreme Court – was arrested in the City Court Police Station and a First Information Report (FIR), No. 54/23 was registered against him.
The lawyer was booked under Section 298 B & C of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the same grounds last year.
The spokesperson highlighted that the two cases were registered against Tariq in the same police station for the same reason.
On the condition of anonymity, an eyewitness said that all this happened in the presence of local police at around 11 pm. It is pertinent to mention here that this place of worship is approximately 118 years old.
A fact-finding mission led by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) earlier underscored an alarming uptick in the persecution of members of the community in Gujranwala and surrounding areas —specifically, the desecration of their graves, destruction of minarets at Ahmadi sites of worship, and FIRs filed against the community members for carrying out ritual animal sacrifice on Eid.
On February 20, 2023, a 75-year-old Ahmadi doctor named Rasheed Ahmad was shot dead in Gotriala, district Gujrat.
Dr Rasheed was shot several times while he was examining patients at his clinic. A dead body of a boy, identified as Hafiz Inam was discovered in nearby fields, and it is most likely that he committed suicide after killing Dr Rasheed.
The persecution of Ahmadis has been on the rise in different areas of Pakistan for some time now. The Punjab province has been the centre of it, and the extent of these activities is such that the peaceful Ahmadis were not left alone even during the holy month of Ramazan.
