A 46-year-old businessman was lynching when a few hundred followers of the Tehreek–Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) religious party on Friday broke into a place of worship that belongs to the Ahmadí community in the Saddar de Karachi area to avoid observing religious rituals, according to the officials.
Talking with Dawn.comSouth Deputy Police General Inspector (DIG) Syed Asad Raza said the deceased was the owner of a store in Tariq Road. As soon as he learned of the TLP supporters who assaulted the Ahmadiyya room in Saddar, closed his store and went to the site of the incident.
“We have decided to accommodate a case of murder against the leaders and workers of TLP. We are waiting for the relatives to present the first information report (FIR). If they do not register the case, then the FIR will be recorded on behalf of the State against the TLP workers,” said the excavation.
However, the FTA denied the accusation and said it was not the fault of the incident.
Raza added that the police were in the process of identifying the suspects. “No one will be saved,” said the South Police Chief.
He said that around 400 TLP supporters had gathered outside the community hall, which is near the mobile market, adding that the police were already deployed there as a result of similar incidents in the areas of Shah Latif, Arrejani and Khokhrapar of the metropolis.
Dig Raza said that the police, the rangers and the district administration took quick measures and gave protection to the members of the Ahmadi community present within the place of worship.
He said that the lynching incident occurred near the Autopartes market, located near the community hall, where TLP supporters hit the man, adding that he was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his wounds.
Race then said Dawn.com that the police recovered the incident’s CCTV images, which showed that the victim was filming the TLP protesters from behind the community hall with their cell phone when someone from the mafia identified him.
“Initially they hit him. When he fell to the ground, the mafia hit him severely, which led to his death,” he said, added that the deceased was an active member of the Ahmadi community.
Raza said that around 40 community members who were taken under “protective custody” by the police to save them from the mafia had been released and sent back to their homes. He promised that no case would be registered against community members.
He said the relatives had removed the body after an autopsy at the Karachi Civil Hospital. “They told the Police that the FIR will be registered after the consultation with the community on Saturday,” Razs said.
The spokesman for the Ahmadi community, Amir Mehmood, said Dawn.com That the deceased, who was a known figure of the community, was “passing through the area about 100-150 meters from the place of worship when TLP supporters recognized him and began to hit him, which led to his death.”
The Casa de la Estación de Predia, Shabbir Husain, also told him Dawn.com That the 46 -year -old man was “filming the TLP workers near the Hashu Center when the mafia began to hit him and killed him.”
“We call a prison truck to move between 45 and 50 members of the community within the community hall to a safe place,” he said.
Mehmood, however, said he did not know that the deceased was filming a video of the mafia.
Police surgeon Dr. Sumaiya Syed said Dawn.com that the deceased received multiple injuries throughout his body. “Death occurred due to hard and forceful impacts on the head, which caused fractures and bleeding,” he said.
Meanwhile, TLP spokesman, Rean Mohammed Khan, said Dawn.com That the party had nothing to do with lynching. “Our position is clear that we want the implementation of laws and the constitution related to Ahmadis.”
He said it was the work of the agencies for the application of the law to take appropriate measures for violations of the law, maintaining that the party protested peacefully and demanded legal actions for violations of the law and the Constitution.
“What is the evidence of DIG and SSP (police senior superintendent) who blame TLP workers for killing man?”
SHRC orders the police for thorough and impartial investigation
The Human Rights Commission of Sindh (SHRC) realized the incident and ordered Dig Raza to carry out an exhaustive, impartial and expedited investigation through a senior/competent officer with efforts to focus on identifying and stopping the guilty.
In a notice, the SHRC also asked the excavation to send a detailed report within 15 days.
The SHRC also said that immediate measures must be taken to guarantee the security of the Ahmadi. “Additional police personnel should be deployed as necessary to maintain the law and order, and effective link mechanisms with community representatives must be established to discourage tensions and avoid more incidents,” said the SHRC.
He warned that this case “has the potential to increase in communal and interreligious tensions.”
He emphasized the need for the police to adopt “proactive and extraordinary measures to safeguard the vulnerable group and mitigate the undulating effects of such sensitive incidents.”
Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission (HRCP) said it was “horrified” by the incident, which he denounced as a “failure of the law and order” that was a “reminder of the continuous complicity of the State in the systematic persecution of a besieged community.”
He said that the perpetrators of the attack in Saddar must be quickly tracked, arrested and processed “without collapsing the pressure of the right end of freeing those responsible.”
Last month, the HRCP said it had observed a growing trend of attacks led by the mafia against homes of families belonging to religious minorities, as well as their places of worship.
The HRCP also spoke of the “arbitrary detention” of Ahmadis, the “desecration of their tombs” and the “vulnerability of Hindu and Christian women” to forced conversion.
The report, entitled under Siege: freedom of religion or belief in 2023-24, said more than 750 people were in prison for blasphemy charges, starting in October last year. He documented at least four faith -based murders, three of which went to the Ahmadi community.
A key finding of the report is that misinformation in social networks was the spark behind most cases of blasphemy registered.
HRCP observed a “growing weapons of blasphemy laws against the Ahmadis”, with cases often initiated by the officials themselves responsible for enforcing the law.
Additional Imran Gabol reports.
