On the night of 25-26 November, police in Sialkot conducted an illegal operation, demolishing the minarets of an Ahmadi Muslim Mosque in Kakhonwali. This action followed a complaint filed on 25 October by a local individual, Sajjad, who requested the police to demolish the mosque’s minarets.
The Ahmadi Muslim community informed the police that the mosque, constructed in 1980, was built prior to the 1984 anti-Ahmadi laws, which prohibit the demolition or alteration of places of worship erected before the enactment of these laws. In a landmark ruling on 10 April 2023, Justice Tariq Saleem Shaikh of the Lahore High Court, in the case of Imran Hamid v. the State (Criminal Case No. 5151/B/2023), affirmed that such places of worship cannot be demolished or altered. Despite this clear legal precedent, the police chose to disregard the law and proceed with the unlawful destruction of the mosque’s minarets.
Local residents of Kakhonwali, who raised no objections to the mosque’s minarets, questioned why Sajjad, who does not even reside in their village, was pursuing the matter. Regardless, on the night of 25-26 November, the Station House Officer (SHO) of Police Station Phalora, District Sialkot, accompanied by 35 police officers and a labourer, arrived at the mosque and proceeded to demolish the minarets, taking the debris with them.
The desecrated mosque.
In a separate incident on 26 November, a group of around 20 extremists launched an attack on an Ahmadi Muslim Mosque in Chak No. 27-JB, Faisalabad. Arriving on motorcycles, the attackers forcibly broke the locks and proceeded to demolish the mosque’s minarets. Some climbed onto the roof, where they destroyed both the minarets and the dome. Armed and undeterred by attempts from local residents to intervene, the assailants identified themselves as law enforcement officers when confronted. After completing their assault, the attackers fled, leaving the mosque severely damaged.
The targeting of Ahmadi Muslim mosques by religious extremists, particularly in Punjab, is a continuing and serious concern. More than 50 mosques have been attached since 2023 with the state complicit in these actions.
Source: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK.