In a troubling development, police in Sialkot carried out an illegal operation by demolishing the minarets of an Ahmadiyya place of worship in Kakhonwali on the night of November 25-26, 2024.
According to details, on October 25, Sajjad, a local individual, filed a complaint with the police, urging them to demolish the minarets of the Ahmadiyya place of worship. In response, the Ahmadis informed the police that the place of worship had been built in 1980, prior to the 1984 ordinance. In a ruling on April 10, 2023, in the case of Imran Hamid v. the State (Criminal Case No. 5151/B/2023), Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh of the Lahore High Court declared that places of worship built before 1984 cannot be demolished or altered. Local residents of Kakhonwali also informed the police that they had no issue with the mosque's minarets and questioned why the complainant, who did not even belong to their village, was raising this issue.
Despite this, on the night of November 25-26, 2024, the SHO of Police Station Phalora, District Sialkot, along with 35 police personnel, arrived with a laborer and proceeded to demolish the minarets, taking the debris with them.
In a separate incident on November 26, 2024, around 11 a.m., miscreants attacked the Ahmadiyya place of worship in Chak No. 27-JB, Faisalabad. Approximately 20 extremists arrived on motorcycles, broke the locks, and entered the place of worship, where they began to demolish the minarets. Some of them climbed onto the roof and destroyed the minarets and the dome. These extremists were also armed. While the attack was underway, local residents gathered and attempted to stop them. When the locals tried to intervene, the attackers identified themselves as law enforcement officers. After carrying out their destructive actions, the attackers fled the scene.
In response to these incidents, Amir Mahmood, the spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan, condemned the illegal actions of the police in Kakhonwali, Sialkot, and the attack on the place of worship in Faisalabad. He expressed concern that the police were violating the clear decision of the Lahore High Court. He questioned under what legal authority the police were defiling the Ahmadiyya places of worship simply to appease extremist elements, especially when the court had explicitly stated that places of worship built before 1984 could not be demolished or altered.
The spokesperson further stated that whether it is the police destroying Ahmadiyya places of worship or extremists attacking them and demolishing minarets, both actions tarnish Pakistan's reputation internationally. He added that such lawless elements were causing harm to Pakistan's global standing. He urged the government to take effective measures to protect Ahmadiyya places of worship and ensure the safety of law-abiding Ahmadis in the country. Furthermore, he called for an end to hate campaigns against Ahmadis.