Unprecedented Wave of Anti-Ahmadiyya Persecution Escalates in Pakistan: Mosques Under Urgent Threat
Accused of offering Friday Prayers, Ahmadis were sent to prison.
The International Human Rights Committee (IHRC) is urgently appealing to Pakistani authorities and members of the international community to intervene as Ahmadi citizens face unprecedented threats to their religious freedom and right to life itself.
Karachi
A case was registered on 7 March 2025, in police station Surjani Town, Karachi and arrested six Ahmadis and charged over 25, including eight children for offering Friday prayers their Mosque.
According to the IHRC sources, several members of TLP gathered outside the Mosque in Sector-4-A, Surjani Town. They demanded that the members of the Ahmadiyya Muslims community inside be prevented from offering Friday prayer and using ‘signs of Islam’. This incident was caught on video[1].
Under pressure of TLP Clerics, the police took 25 Ahmadis into ‘protective custody’ and took them to the Khawaja Ajmer Nagri police station. TLP workers had been gathering outside Ahmadiyya Worship for quite some time and were demanding the arrest and sealing of their Worship Place.
Ahmadiyya Muslim members practiced religious rites inside a closed building, which cannot be considered a “crime”. Arresting them for performing their rituals “was a grave violation of Human Rights and Constitution of Pakistan, Article 20: Freedom to profess religion which allowed freely practicing faith ‘Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.’
The arrests followed pressure from a hostile mob, led by Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) activists, who surrounded the site and demanded action.
Instead of protecting the worshippers, authorities yielded to extremist demands, detained the Ahmadis, and sealed the mosque. The case, filed under Sections 298 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code, stemmed from a TLP complaint alleging the use of Islamic rituals during prayers
An Unfolding Crisis Requires Urgent Intervention
No one can deny or ignore an intensifying pattern of religious persecution and violence that threatens the freedom and safety of hundreds of thousands of peaceful Pakistani citizens from violence by extremists, who are driving local and national authorities to do their bidding in the name of the law.
Pakistan is thus egregiously flouting international religious freedom standards. The IHRC calls upon governments, including that of the European Union, United States and UK, which have affirmed their support for religious freedom, to urgently engage with Pakistani authorities at this critical juncture, when escalating, state-sanctioned religious persecution is rising to unprecedented levels.
[1] Link to a video on social media: https://x.com/i/status/1898266628371939659
