Pakistan Mob Kills Woman, Girls, Over 'Blasphemous' Facebook PostBy IndiaTimes | July 28, 2014, 3:23 pm IST
A Pakistani mob killed a woman member of a religious sect and two of her granddaughters after a sect member was accused of posting blasphemous material on Facebook, police said Monday, the latest instance of growing violence against minorities.
A mob set on fire the belongings of religous minority group Qadianis (Ahmadiyyas), following accusations of blasphemy, in Gujranwala, Pakistan, early 28 July 2014.EPA/MUHAMMAD OWAISThe dead, including a seven-year-old girl and her baby sister, were Ahmadis, who consider themselves Muslim but believe in a prophet after Mohammed. A 1984 Pakistani law declared them non-Muslims and many Pakistanis consider them heretics.
Police said the late Sunday violence in the town of Gujranwala, 220 km southeast of the capital, Islamabad, started with an altercation between young men, one of whom was an Ahmadi accused of posting "objectionable material".
"Later, a crowd of 150 people came to the police station demanding the registration of a blasphemy case against the accused," said one police officer who declined to be identified.
"As police were negotiating with the crowd, another mob attacked and started burning the houses of Ahmadis."
An Ahmadi boy, Aqib Salim, aged 17, who belongs to a lower middle-class family allegedly posted a blasphemous picture on Facebook, which infuriated his Muslim friend Saddam Hussain," a local police official Salim Akhtar said.Salim had not been injured, he said.
He said the pair scuffled on the street, as hundreds of onlookers gathered and began protesting.Resident Munawar Ahmed, 60, said he drove terrified neighbours to safety as the mob attacked.
"A violent mob set fire to five or six houses of the Ahmadi community after they accused the minority members of opening fire on them from the houses."
"The attackers were looting and plundering, taking away fans and whatever valuables they could get hold of and dragging furniture into the road and setting fire to it... Some were continuously firing into the air," he said.
A mob collect the belongings of religous minority group Qadianis (Ahmadiyyas), following accusations of blasphemy, in Gujranwala, Pakistan, early 28 July 2014. Ahmadiyya do not believe that the prophet Mohammed is the final messenger of God, a belief held by Muslims following mainstream Islamic principles. Pakistan declared the sect non-Muslim in 1974, providing extremist groups with a sort of legal cover to attack them for posing as Muslims. EPA/MUHAMMAD OWAIS"A lot of policemen arrived but they stayed on the sidelines and didn't intervene," he said.
The police officer said they had tried to stop the mob.
Salim ud Din, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community, said it was the worst attack on the community since simultaneous attacks on Ahmadi places of worship killed 86 Ahmadis four years ago.
Under Pakistani law, Ahmadis are banned from using Muslim greetings, saying Muslim prayers or referring to his place of worship as a mosque.
Founded by Ghulam Ahmad, who was born in 1838, the Ahmadi sect has a number of unique views including that Ahmad himself was a prophet and that Jesus died aged 120 in Srinagar, capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir.
They are not allowed to identify themselves as Muslims under Pakistani law and are banned from going on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive subject in Pakistan, where the majority of the 180 million population are devoutly Muslim, though rights activists say unfounded charges are often levelled to settle personal scores.
Accusations of blasphemy are rocketing in Pakistan, from one in 2011 to at least 68 last year, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. About 100 people have been accused of blasphemy this year.
Human rights workers say the accusations are increasingly used to settle personal vendettas or to grab the property of the accused.
Source1:
http://www.indiatimes.com/news/asia/pakistan-mob-kills-woman-girls-over-blasphemous-facebook-post-164458.htmlSource2:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/28/uk-pakistan-islam-murder-idUKKBN0FX0GM20140728
Topic: Ahmadis killed in Gujranwala Mob attack over alleged blasphemy says news