GUJRANWALA:
Police registered a case against more than 500 people on Monday after a mob
killed a woman and two children and set several houses of the Ahmadi community
on fire late on Sunday when a youth from the community allegedly posted
blasphemous material on Facebook.
Among those
booked by police were prayer leader Maulvi Hakim and his son Zakariya.
According to
police, young Saqib allegedly shared a blasphemous image with Ejaz on Facebook.
Infuriated, Ejaz, Zakariya and some other people gathered outside the youth’s
house in Arafat Colony to “teach him a lesson”.
Sensing
danger, members of the Ahmadi community assembled at the house of one Dr
Sohail, said police. The angry mob attempted to enter that house in pursuit of
Saqib when the people inside allegedly opened fire on them, injuring Zakariya.
The mob had
grown in size by that time and eventually entered the house, damaging it. The
crowd also damaged some other houses, police said.
Gujranwala
CPO Waqas Nazir, Civil Lines SP Zeeshan Siddiqi and CIA DSP Rashid Sandhu
reached the spot and began negotiations with members of the two communities to
bring the situation under control.
“Later, a
crowd of about 150 people went to the police station and sought the
registration of a blasphemy case against the youth,” said a police officer. “As
police were negotiating with the crowd, another mob attacked and began burning
houses of the Ahmadi community.”
The names of
the deceased were Bushra (45), Hira Tabassum (seven) and Kainat Tabassum (10
months). Ruqaiya and her two children Noor Tabassum and Ata, Samer Ahmad, Atia
Tabassum, Talha, Humaira and Muneer Ahmad fell unconscious.
SP Siddiqi
said a woman suffered miscarriage.
Salimuddin, a
spokesman for the Ahmadi community, said the incident on Sunday night was the
worst attack on his community since the attacks in Lahore four years ago.
“Police were
there but only to witness arson and looting. They didn’t do anything to stop
the mob,” he said.
“First the
crowd looted homes and shops and then they burnt the houses.”
According to
police and eyewitnesses, seven to eight houses of the Ahmadi community are in
the neighbourhood. All of them have since been vacated.
Heavy
contingents of police have been deployed outside the victims’ houses and the
hospital where the injured are under treatment.
The police
have registered the case against more than 500 people, seven of them nominated
accused, under sections 302, 436, 148 and 149 of Pakistan Penal Code and
Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act on the complaint of Bhutta, the father of the
deceased children, at the Peoples Colony Station.
Meanwhile,
the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has characterised the mob
attacks as brutal and barbaric.
In a statement,
it said: “The HRCP is shocked and disgusted at the killings after a blasphemy
allegation. As things stand in the country now, particularly in Punjab, a
blasphemy charge, however unfounded, makes such cold-blooded killings somehow
less repulsive. The people who were killed were not even indirectly accused of
the blasphemy charge.
“Their only
fault was that they were Ahmadi. Torching women and children in their house
simply because of their faith represents brutalisation and barbarism stooping
to new lows.
“The
community, rights-respecting citizens and civil society would and must demand
accountability of the mob that cheered as the deceased and injured cried for
help. But if prospects for such justice were even remotely realistic, that
might have deterred many in the mob from being a part of the heinous
enterprise.
“The HRCP
calls for a thorough inquiry to find out why police failed to act as the mob
went around a number of Ahmadi localities before they eventually chose the one
that they decided to target.
“Members of
the mob and the people who instigated them need to be identified and brought to
justice. Most importantly, the biases and intolerance that led to the killing
must be rooted out through proactive and meaningful steps if we are to survive
as a civilised society.”
Published
in Dawn, July 29th, 2014
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