Police in the Punjab Province of Pakistan Destroy the Minarets of a Minority Ahmadi Community’s Church

According to sources, police in Pakistan’s Punjab province toppled the minarets of a house of worship for the minority Ahmadi community after a militant Islamist organization threatened to assault it.

A Punjab government source told PTI on Saturday that Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had warned police on Friday to either destroy the minarets of the Ahmadi shrine at the Kala Gujran in Jehlum district of Punjab, around 225 kilometers from Lahore, or it will assault it.

According to the official, “Police summoned the Ahmadi leaders of the region and asked them to destroy the minarets of their place of worship as they could not build them under the law or they would themselves destroy the place.”

He said that a police force invaded the Ahmadi community’s house of worship on Friday night and destroyed it.

Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya According to TLP chairman Asim Ashfaq Rizvi, a campaign against Ahmadi houses of worship was started in Jehlum, according to Pakistani Punjab official Amir Mahmood, who spoke to PTI.

Rizvi allegedly threatened to harm the Ahmadi locations in Jehlum if the police would not remove them by the 10th Muharram (end of July), according to Mahmood.

Rizvi has expressed concern that the extreme Islamists will attack and demolish the Ahmadi houses of worship.

“Instead of defending Ahmadis, the police destroyed the minarets of their place of worship in order to appease bigots and extremists. Mahmood described the incident as regrettable and a blatant infringement of the rights of the Ahmadi community.

He said that in 2014, a three-member court presided over by Pakistan’s Chief Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jilani authorized the creation of a special police unit to guard minorities’ houses of worship.