ISLAMABAD: Two members of the minority
Ahmadi community
were
shot dead
in
Pakistan
’s central
Punjab province
on Saturday, days after a
vicious campaign
was launched against the Supreme Court order releasing a person from the persecuted sect in a 2022 case.
The incident occurred in Sadullapur area of Mandi Bahauddin district.
The victims, a 50-year-old man and another 25 years old, were targeted by an unknown assailant when they were en route to a nearby market.
District police officer Ahmad Mohiuddin said the suspected attacker has been arrested from the same locality and the murder weapon seized. “He was involved in both shootings,” he claimed.
Following the incident, a large police force was deployed in the area.
Police said they first took both bodies into custody and moved them to a local government-run hospital for post-mortem analyses, after which the bodies would be handed over to the victims’ relatives.
There are an estimated four million Ahmadis in Pakistan, a country of over 220 million people. They live in fear in a Muslim majority country due to intimidation and threats of death. A sustained hate campaign has been on against them for decades. The community’s members avoid revealing or speaking about their faith in public.
Over the last few decades, Pakistan’s
minority
communities have borne the brunt of mob brutality, bomb attacks, arsons, lynchings and other forms of violence. Last month, a district president of the Ahmadi community was killed by unknown assailants.
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