Pakistan police demolish minarets of Ahmadi Mosque

Asia

Pakistan police demolished minarets of an Ahmadi mosque on the outskirts of Gujranwala after local Muslims complained that the Islamic inscription on the Mosque hurt their feelings.

The complaint against the Mosque in Garmula Virkan was filed earlier this year on January 25th by a resident named Sajad Virk. Virk complained that the Ahmadis had put up Islamic verses on their worship place which were offensive towards Muslims, and this act of the Ahmadis could cause a riot.

In his complaint, Virk alleged that the Ahmadis were also running a school to educate their children, which was illegal.

Police DSP Khalid Aslam of Nowshera Virkan, in a statement, said that according to Pakistani law, the Ahmadis can not have a place of worship that looks like a Mosque. Aslam said that the Police demolished the minarets and erased the Islamic inscriptions from the Mosque. According to a report by BBC Urdu member of an Islamic group also joined the Police in tearing down the minarets.

DSP Khalid Aslam said the Police also shut down the Ahmadi school for not having a “registration certificate.” He said that if the school had not been closed and the minarets not been destroyed, a riot could have erupted in the area.

Hundreds of Ahmadi families live in Garmula Virkan and some adjoining villages, and being a rural area, the majority of them are landowners who are engaged in farming.