Press Release

15 PRESS RELEASE AHAMDI MOSQUES BURNED AND DESECRATED IN PAKISTAN (Rashid Ahmad Chaudhary) A magistrate, with a one hundred strong police force raided the Ahfnadiyya mosque in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in the early hours of the morning on the 15th March, 1988, arrested the members of the Ahmadiyya Community present in the mosque without any provocation, hammered to pieces the marble slab which had the Kalima inscription on it, and took away the sign board, showing the name of the mosque. Acceding to the details the police party came in three trucks at about 3 o’clock in the morning and blocked the Muree Road, where the Ahmadiyya mosque is situated, before entering the Ahmadiyya place of worship. The Worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community strongly condemns this unlslamic and uncivilised act of vandalism by the government agencies and expresses grave concern over the escalation of persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan, and the desecration of their places of worship in recent weeks. A few weeks earlier the Ahmadiyya mosque at Muree was set on fire by some unknown persons. The doors and windows of this mosque were removed and taken away before setting fire to the mats and other furniture. Police did not register the case. The Ahmadiyya community appeals to the civilised world in general and Muslims all over the world, in particular, to exert pressure on the Zia regime of Pakistan to desist from such shameful acts, which are not only against human rights vouchsafed in the United Nations Charter, but also regarded as a heinous crime in Islam.