Rights groups decry killings

PAKISTAN’S government must impartially investigate recent murders of members of the country’s Ahmadiyya community, leading rights bodies said yesterday, amid a surge in violence against the often- persecuted group.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists ( ICJ) decried hate crimes against the community in a rare joint statement.

Adherents of Ahmadiyya, a 4- million- strong minority group in Pakistan, have faced death, intimidation and a sustained hate campaign for decades.

Ahmadiyya insist they are followers of Islam, but Pakistan declared the group non- Muslim in 1974 for regarding the sect’s founder, Ghulam Ahmad, to be a prophet.

Orthodox Islam maintains there can be no prophets after Mohammed.

More than 260 members of the group have been killed in targeted gun or bomb attacks since 1984, when the sectarian violence started in Pakistan, according to statistics compiled by the community.

“We live in the shadow of fear,” said group spokesperson Saleem Uddin.

Rights groups said at least five members of the community had been killed because of their faith since summer, so far, the police have only been able to arrest suspects in two murders.

A professor, a young doctor, a businessman and a Pakistani- American citizen were among those who had been murdered this year, Uddin said.

“There are few communities in Pakistan who have suffered as much as the Ahmadis,” said Omar Waraich, head of South Asia at Amnesty International.