Pakistan: Three Ahmadis arrested for sacrificing animals on Eid

Faisalabad [Pakistan], July 11 (ANI): A recent incident of the arrest of three members of the Ahmadiyya community for sacrificing animals on Eid-al-Adha in Pakistan once again highlighted the atrocities being committed against the minorities and the country's deep-rooted disdain for them.
According to the Dawn newspaper, three members of the Ahmadiyya community were arrested on Sunday for sacrificing animals on the festival of Eid-al-Adha right after an FIR was filed against five people for "hurting Muslim sentiments".
The FIR stated that complainants were present in a mosque after Eid-al-Adha prayers when they came to know through verified sources that residents of the Ahmadi community were sacrificing animals inside their homes.
"The complainants then reached the area and climbed the roofs of nearby houses, to find that the members of the Ahmadiyya community were sacrificing a goat at one place while the other members were cutting the meat of another animal at a different place," the report said.
"The Islamic sentiments of the complainants and other Muslims were hurt by this and [the complainants] recorded a video which can be presented as evidence," it added.
"By performing a ritual in line with Islamic beliefs and presenting themselves as Muslims despite being Ahmadis, they have committed a cognisable offence, according to Muslim ummah's belief, and this has grievously hurt Muslim sentiments," the complainants stated in the report.
The FIR was filed in the Faisalabad police station in Thikriwala against five people under Section 298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), the Dawn reported.
The spokesperson of the Ahmadiyya community Saleemuddin said that the slaughter was being performed within the confines of a house and not in a public place. "The community is being persecuted," he said, referring to recurring incidents of inhumanity and mistreatment against the Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan.
Notably, Ahmedis are Muslims who were declared non-Muslim by Pakistan in 1973. They are subjected to increased discrimination from the government and the society at large dominated by the majority of Sunnis.
The Pakistani constitution declared the Ahmadis sect of Islam to be 'infidels' and also barred them from 'posing as Muslims'.
The Ahmadis members alleged that many cases were hushed up and even when the cases are registered, the investigation and prosecution are weak after which the culprits go free.
There are several reports that cited the mistreatment of Ahmadis by the justice system of Pakistan as many people lost their lives while being tried for blasphemy.
Most ominously, the Ahmadiyya sect remains the most vulnerable to Pakistan's violent blasphemy laws, with at least 13 Ahmadis killed and 40 wounded since 2017 owing to their identity.
An earlier report of August 23, 2021, quoted historian and lawyer Yasser Latif Hamdani, former BBC Urdu editor Tahir Imran Mian and human rights activists Rabia Mehmood and Ali Warsi alleged that Pakistan accuses the whole world of indulging in Islamophobia, while they themselves are engaged in violence when it comes to minorities and the Ahmedi community. (ANI)