A member of Pakistan’s Ahmadiyya community was beaten to death on Friday after a mob of radical surrounded an Ahmadi place of worship in Karachi’s Saddar neighbourhood.
The crowd, having many from the anti blasphemy political groupTehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), forced their way through narrow streets chanting anti-Ahmadi slogans before surrounding the colonial-era worship site. Tensions quickly escalated when the group accused the minority community of violating Pakistan’s controversial anti-Ahmadi laws.
“One member of the community was killed after the mob identified him as an Ahmadi,” said Muhammad Safdar, a senior police official in Karachi.
“They attacked him with sticks and bricks.”
Police said members of several religious parties were part of the mob. To protect others from further violence, officers took around 25 Ahmadis into custody and moved them away in a police-escorted van after negotiating with the crowd, which had swelled to around 600 people.
The Ahmadiyya community, considered heretical by Pakistan’s state and many religious groups, has long faced systemic discrimination. Ahmadis, who have a population of almost 10 million worldwide, consider themselves Muslims and have faith identical to mainstream Islam in almost every manner. Though they regard themselves as Muslim, a 1974 constitutional amendment declared them non-Muslim, and a 1984 ordinance criminalised many of their religious practices.
Friday’s killing is the latest in a long history of persecution. According to community records, six Ahmadis have been killed in 2024 so far, with over 280 killed since 1984. Thousands more have faced criminal charges, including hundreds under Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws.
Abdul Qadir Ashrafi, a 52-year-old businessman who took part in the protest, said the group’s intention was to pressure police to act against the Ahmadis.
“We requested that the place be sealed and that those conducting the Friday prayers be arrested, with criminal proceedings initiated against them,” he told AFP.
The human rights commission of Pakistan condemned the attack, saying it was "appalled by the orchestrated attack by a far-right religious party on a colonial-era Ahmadi place of worship."
“This failure of law and order is a stark reminder of the continued complicity of the state in the systematic persecution of a beleaguered community,” the commission posted on social media platform X.
Mob violence has become an all-too-common response to accusations of blasphemy in Pakistan, often with deadly consequences. In a similar incident last year, dozens of churches were torched in the city of Jaranwala after a Christian man was falsely accused of blasphemy.
The crowd, having many from the anti blasphemy political groupTehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), forced their way through narrow streets chanting anti-Ahmadi slogans before surrounding the colonial-era worship site. Tensions quickly escalated when the group accused the minority community of violating Pakistan’s controversial anti-Ahmadi laws.
A mob beat to death a member of Pakistan's persecuted Ahmadiyya minority on Friday after hundreds of radical Islamists surrounded their place of worship in the port city of Karachi, police said. https://t.co/mX2ihMhCKR pic.twitter.com/8fE0uBpCnm
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 18, 2025
“One member of the community was killed after the mob identified him as an Ahmadi,” said Muhammad Safdar, a senior police official in Karachi.
“They attacked him with sticks and bricks.”
Police said members of several religious parties were part of the mob. To protect others from further violence, officers took around 25 Ahmadis into custody and moved them away in a police-escorted van after negotiating with the crowd, which had swelled to around 600 people.
The Ahmadiyya community, considered heretical by Pakistan’s state and many religious groups, has long faced systemic discrimination. Ahmadis, who have a population of almost 10 million worldwide, consider themselves Muslims and have faith identical to mainstream Islam in almost every manner. Though they regard themselves as Muslim, a 1974 constitutional amendment declared them non-Muslim, and a 1984 ordinance criminalised many of their religious practices.
Friday’s killing is the latest in a long history of persecution. According to community records, six Ahmadis have been killed in 2024 so far, with over 280 killed since 1984. Thousands more have faced criminal charges, including hundreds under Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws.
Abdul Qadir Ashrafi, a 52-year-old businessman who took part in the protest, said the group’s intention was to pressure police to act against the Ahmadis.
“We requested that the place be sealed and that those conducting the Friday prayers be arrested, with criminal proceedings initiated against them,” he told AFP.
The human rights commission of Pakistan condemned the attack, saying it was "appalled by the orchestrated attack by a far-right religious party on a colonial-era Ahmadi place of worship."
“This failure of law and order is a stark reminder of the continued complicity of the state in the systematic persecution of a beleaguered community,” the commission posted on social media platform X.
Mob violence has become an all-too-common response to accusations of blasphemy in Pakistan, often with deadly consequences. In a similar incident last year, dozens of churches were torched in the city of Jaranwala after a Christian man was falsely accused of blasphemy.
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