Pakistan: Ahmadi Woman Arrested for Offering Religious Instruction for Children
Pakistani Ahmadi Woman Jailed for Suggesting Quran Teacher – IHRC Demands Immediate Release.
Bushra Abid, a married woman who works as a Health Visitor, is under arrest. The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) is calling for her immediate release.
Mrs. Bushra Abid has been arrested under Pakistan’s discriminatory blasphemy laws simply for responding to a neighbor’s request to suggest a Quran teacher.
A case was registered against Mrs. Bushra Abid and two others, including a local Ahmadi missionary at Kot Ladha Police Station, district Gujranwala under Section 298-C under FIR No. 93 on 29th January 2025 under the accusation of Preaching of the Message of Ahmadiyyat, resulting in the arrest of Mrs. Bushra Abid.
The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) has condemned her arrest as a blatant violation of religious freedom and is calling for her immediate and unconditional release. This case underscores the systemic persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, were even peaceful expressions of faith.
These acts of violence and targeted attack are inconsistent with international norms and values concerning freedom of religion and belief, as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), on the freedom of religion, and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which was ratified by Pakistan in 2008. Three other UN human rights treaties, as well as numerous General Assembly Resolutions and Human Rights Committee comments, prohibit religious discrimination. These hate-crimes make it to viral social media posts and videos also violate Pakistan’s own National Action Plan as well as the recently enacted cybercrime laws because it fuels hatred, discrimination and persecution against members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan.
Nonetheless, the Pakistani government authorities, who continue to bring frivolous cases against Ahmadi Muslims under anti-Ahmadiyya, blasphemy, and cybercrime laws, turn a blind eye towards systematic and country-wide efforts by Islamic extremists to fan hatred and ignite violence against Ahmadi Muslims. Instead of prosecuting these extremists under cybercrime laws and the National Action Plan, the governmental authorities continue to protect and support extremists and target innocent Ahmadis.
In July 2024, a group of top UN Human Rights experts including UN Special Rapporteurs urged an “immediate end to discrimination and violence against Ahmadis in Pakistan, citing documented evidence of “extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, attacks on places of worship and curtailment of free expression, peaceful assembly and association.” Apparently, their pleas fell on deaf ears.
We call upon the Pakistani authorities to honor their international human rights commitments to protect religious freedom and promote religious tolerance towards the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
