Killing In The Name Of.
From DawnEight dead in Pakistan’s Ahmadi community’s worship place attack
ISLAMABAD, Oct 7 (AFP) Masked gunmen with Kalashnikov rifles stormed into a place of worship belonging to the Ahmadi community in Pakistan on Friday, shooting dead eight people and wounding 14, the Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and police said. Members of the Ahmadi community offering morning prayers in Mong, a suburb of Mandi Bahauddin town, 100 kilometres south of Islamabad, were attacked by three men on a motorbike and two on foot, reports said. “The floor of the one-room place of worship was littered with blood," said Mohammad Sajid, who lives nearby. He said around 25 people were praying when the attack was made at around 4:45 am (2345 GMT)."Two masked men entered the place of worship and sprayed bullets at people standing in two rows for morning prayers," area police chief Ziaullah Niazi told AFP. "One witness said he could hear the sound of a motorbike with its engine running outside throughout the attack." Police said one of the injured was in a critical condition. President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday condemned the incident. They directed the concerned authorities to promptly investigate the matter and bring the culprits to justice so that exemplary punishment can be awarded. They also offered their condolences to the bereaved families.
The religious persecution of Pakistanis belong to the Ahmedi sect has been going on since 1973, when the 1973 Constition declared that they were non Muslims. While getting into the religious aspect of it is too futile an exercise, the religious persecution is starting to get to me now. How can you kill people praying in a mosque, just because they don't have the same beliefs as you? I remember having Ahmedi schoolmates, who would'nt declare themselves as Qadianis when filling out admission forms because they were aware of the consequences that would follow. Living in a supposedly modern secular state, we should be ashamed of ourselves. We need to have a clause inserted in the constitution that clearly states that killing minorities or Muslims from different sects is a sin that has no forgiveness.
posted by atrophyingsenses @ 12:42 AM
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