Sadness hangs over the atmosphere of Eid al-Adha among the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan, as this minority is still suffering from threats from Islamic groups and the police arresting its members.
Naeem Aslam says sadly, “Eid is usually synonymous with joy, but for us it means threats and anxiety.” Naeem Aslam lives in Chakwal, about 100 kilometers south of Islamabad.
The Ahmadis migrated from India to Pakistan after the partition in 1947, and they consider themselves Muslims. But other Islamic movements consider them heretics because they consider the founder of the group, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, born in the nineteenth century and the creator of the group’s teachings, the awaited Mahdi.
The sect is spread in many countries and its number is estimated at about 10 million people around the world.
In Pakistan, the constitution has classified them as non-Muslims since 1974, and since 1984 the law has prevented them from declaring that they are Muslims and from spreading their faith.
Unlike Ahmadis in other countries, they cannot call their place of worship a “mosque,” pronounce the call to prayer or make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
On Monday, police placed three of the group’s senior notables in Chakwal “under precautionary detention” for 30 days, according to Amnesty International. She asked them to sign a written pledge stating that no Ahmadi in the city would slaughter or sacrifice an animal on Eid al-Adha, which falls on Monday, members of the group say.
After protests expressed by local and international human rights organizations, on Thursday evening, these notables were released.
Amir Mahmoud, spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community, told Agence France-Presse: “They refused to sign written pledges, but they said they were committed to ensuring that nothing would disrupt the law or public order.”
He added, “So we will offer sacrifices, but inside our homes, as has always been the case.”
While some families will slaughter a goat, sheep, or cow for the rich among them, Fayyad, who spoke under a pseudonym for fear of reprisal, told Agence France-Presse that he will not perform a sacrifice this year after last year’s shock.
Then, on Eid day, police arrived at his home in Faisalabad, another town in Punjab, and said they had received a complaint about “unlawful rituals” from neighbors who had seen his nephew distributing pieces of meat to relatives.
“They even searched my refrigerator,” says the man, who then had to go into hiding for several months.
Ahmadis say that filing complaints a few days before Eid has become commonplace. Last year, a video shared by many netizens showed Faisalabad police searching the house of an Ahmadis and confiscating three goats.
Therefore, Fayyad will not do what he considers a religious duty this year. “I see how my neighbors are watching me and spying on me to find out if I bought a goat,” he says.
“The law allows us to practice our religious rituals within the four walls of our homes, but even that has become a problem,” Mahmoud says regretfully.
In Jhelum, where a large number of Ahmadis live, the Tehreek-e-Labaik Islamist party escalated its actions against them in May. In a video clip that was widely circulated, one of their leaders appears threatening to “hang” any Ahmadi who sacrifices an animal on Eid, in front of a large, angry crowd in front of an Ahmadi place of worship, while policemen stand by and watch.
“Since that day, men on motorbikes have been watching Ahmadi homes to see if they will bring an animal to sacrifice,” says an Ahmadi elder from Jhelum, also on condition of anonymity.
He added, “All this intimidation is done with the implicit approval of the authorities, which motivates the extremists.”
In Jhelum, as in Chakwal, the police say their mission is limited to maintaining public order and enforcing the law.
In total, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent body, reports that in 2023, there were 35 attacks on Ahmadi places of worship and 21 Ahmadi were arrested “for insulting religion.”
A few days before Eid, on June 8, two Ahmadis were killed in Mandi Bahauddin, in Punjab, according to Amnesty International.
Amir Mahmoud says that the killer was not yet 18 years old. “He was a student in a Qur’anic school whose principal was known for his diatribes and his attacks on Ahmadis.”
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