In A Week: Fifth Ahmadiyya Worship Place Desecrated in Sheikhupura

Local community says police demolished the minarets atop the structure in violation of LHC order

In A Week: Fifth Ahmadiyya Worship Place Desecrated in Sheikhupura

The Ahmadiyya community has claimed that police have demolished the minarets atop a place of worship in Sheikhupura, in the fifth such act in the district over the past week.

This is the second such act which took place in the past 48 hours, with an Ahmadiyya worship place also targeted in Okara.

They added that the police action violated a Lahore High Court order issued earlier in September, which barred the removal of minarets atop Ahmadiyya places of worship, which were constructed before 1984.

The community said that police arrived at the worship place located in the Kalsiyan neighbourhood of the district on the night of September 26.

They demolished the tops of the minarets erected atop the multistorey building.

The community further said that a place of worship located in 55/2L village of Okara District was targeted by unidentified miscreants. 

Community members said that unidentified assailants arrived in the dark of the night and partially demolished its arch. 

The community claimed that these attacks were not isolated incidents carried out by individuals; rather, they were part of a wider campaign against their community by the extremist Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), who openly challenged the writ of the state.

"Authorities are not only failing to provide protection but, in some cases, are acting as accomplices," a community member expressed.

Authorities are flagrantly violating the decisions of the courts since they choose to ignore the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Lahore High Court, even in instances when copies of the verdicts are presented to the police officers.