PAKISTAN: Muslim Ahmadi dentist brutally murdered in cold blood
Ahmadis in Pakistan endure a life of severe oppression, live in fear of death, and struggle to have the basic right to live and move freely
Atalayar (08.08.2024) – The Ahmadiyya Community has denounced in an official statement the shooting death of an Ahmadi doctor in Pakistan as part of the spiral of persecution suffered by this group in the Pakistani nation.
Official statement of the Ahmadiyya Community
On 27 July 2024, Dr Zaka Ur Rehman, 53, was shot dead in the morning outside his dental clinic on GT Road as he was opening his clinic. This comes just two days after a group of UN human rights experts, including UN Special Rapporteurs, called for an “immediate end to discrimination and violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan”, showing documented evidence of “extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, attacks on places of worship and restrictions on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association”.
The state of Pakistan seems to have surrendered to the aggressors in the name of its own protection, lest these violent fanatics accuse them of being Ahmadis as well.
Ahmadis in Pakistan endure a life of severe oppression, live in fear of death, and struggle to have the basic right to live and move freely. Discrimination against people based on their beliefs is unacceptable. The Ahmadis do not even have the security of returning home safely to their loved ones.
The fact is that there is an alarming increase in hate campaigns against the Ahmadi community in Pakistan. The killing of Ahmadis has become the norm in Pakistan, something the government hardly takes notice of. Threats and attempts to kill Ahmadis have increased almost everywhere in the country.
The impact of a bullet in the wall, where many Ahmadis were shot dead in a mosque.
We ask for your support, so that the government of Pakistan takes strong action to demand freedom of religion and the protection of fundamental human rights. The world should put pressure on the government of Pakistan to stop each and every one of the culprits fuelling hatred and inciting violence, which has led to the brutal targeted killings of Ahmadis, in broad daylight, even in front of their young children, and to bring justice to the families of those killed Pakistan professes to be a democratic Islamic state.
We strongly urge the international community to urge the Government of Pakistan to live up to its responsibility, to provide effective protection and freedom of religious practice to the Ahmadis, to bring the perpetrators of these heinous attacks to justice, and to bring its laws and practices in line with international standards, as mandated by Articles 20, 2 and 18 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 25 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).