South Asia Terrorism Portal

PAKISTAN

Perils of the Ahmadi Community
Sanchita Bhattacharya
Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management
 

On August 13, 2020, a 61-year-old Ahmadi man, Meraj Ahmed, was shot dead near his medical store in the Dabgari Gardens area of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

On July 29, 2020, Tahir Naseem, a US citizen and an Ahmadi, accused of blasphemy, was shot dead inside a District Court in Peshawar, in the presence of security and the presiding judge. Though he was killed as an Ahmadi, Saleem ud Din, spokesman of the Jamaat Ahmadiyya Pakistan, later claimed, “He was born Ahmadi but left the community many years ago. Therefore, to avoid any misinformation, I would like to clarify that the deceased was not part of Jamaat Ahmadiyya.”

Jamaat Ahmadiyya Pakistan is an organisation that, among other things, watches over the religious, economic and political interests of Ahmadis in Pakistan.

On July 15, 2020, graves of members of the Ahmadi community were desecrated in Tirigiri village of Gujranwala District in Punjab Province, as Quranic verses were written on these graves. Pakistani law prohibits Ahmadis from calling themselves or “posing as” Muslims.

On July 1, 2020, local clerics allegedly vandalised graves of members of the Ahmadi community in the Nawa Kot area of Sheikhupura District in Punjab Province. Saleem ud Din, spokesman of the Jamaat Ahmadiyya Pakistan, condemning the attack, Tweeted

On February 29, 2020, three graves belonging to Ahmadis were allegedly desecrated by the Police in the Khushab District of Punjab Province.

According to partial data collated by South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), these were the five reported incidents in 2020 in which the Ahmadi community was targeted (data till August 23, 2020). Two of these incidents resulted in one fatality each. Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling data on conflicts in Pakistan, at least 128 Ahmadis have been killed and 113 injured in 28 incidents of killing.

The worst ever attack targeting the Ahmadis took place on May 28, 2010. 94 people were killed when two Ahmadi mosques were targeted in Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab, in attacks that included grenades, small arms fire and two suicide bombers. 27 people were killed at the Baitul Nur Mosque in Lahore’s Model Town area and 67 people died at the Darul Zikr Mosque in the suburb of Garhi Shahu. The Punjabi Taliban, a local affiliate of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had claimed responsibility.

Britain's All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in its Report titled, "Suffocating the Faithful: The Persecution of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan and the Rise of International Extremism", published in July 2020, stated that between 1984 and July 2020, at least 269 Ahmadi Muslims have been killed on grounds of faith. The report also explains the abuse Ahmadis experience in educational institutions,

Indeed, apart from death and desecration, the Ahmadi community faces constant oppression and discrimination in eligibility to hold government positions, in contesting elections, in their businesses, and in destruction of their homes and places of worship. Ahmadi Muslims are prevented by law from publishing and possessing their core religious texts, crucially including the Holy Quran. As reported on January 10, 2020, the Punjab Assembly’s Special Committee decided to ban the Ahmadi newspaper, Al-Fazl. This, in a state and a country where dozens of terrorist organisations openly publish multiple magazines.

The oppression and suppression faced by Ahmadis are at the behest of the Pakistani establishment. Noor-ul-Haq Qadri, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Religious and Inter-faith Harmony Affairs, declared in May 2020 that any form of “soft-heartedness” toward the Ahmadis was both un-Islamic and un-patriotic,

Unsurprisingly, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), constituted in May 2020 has no member from the Ahmadi community. Initially, it was suggested that Ahmadis should get a representation in the Commission, but, as reported on May 18, 2020, Prime Minister Imran Khan rejected that idea after it sparked severe criticism from orthodox Sunnis who consider the Ahmadi belief an insult to Islam.

Moreover, under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), fundamental religious rights are denied to Ahmadis in Pakistan. Ordinance XX prohibits Ahmadis from self-declaration as a Muslim, to make azaan (prayer call), from paying zakat (alms), from observing fast during Ramzaan, and from making pilgrimage to Mecca. PPC 298 C , thus states,

The Ahmadi community, accepted as a minority sect of Islam at the time of the country’s independence in 1947, became the first minority group to be targeted for sectarian violence when anti-Ahmadi riots broke out in 1953 in Lahore, leading to the first imposition of Martial Law in the country’s history, limited to Lahore. 2,000 Ahmadis were killed in violent protests.

Later, in 1974, under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Administration, the Parliament brought the Second Amendment to the 1973 Constitution, and declared the Ahmadis non-Muslims. Unlike all other Muslims in the country, Ahmadis were prohibited from calling their place of worship a mosque and saying the common Islamic greeting of Assalamo Alaikum (Peace be upon you ) or reading the Kalima (the testimony of faith).

Further, in 1985, the then President Zia ul Haq pushed through the Eighth Amendment to the 1973 Constitution in Parliament, which was accompanied by a series of laws effectively creating a separate electorate system for non-Muslims, including Ahmadi Muslims. Moreover, according to the Amendment, they cannot hold government office without publicly denouncing Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadi community.

The status of the Ahmadis has become precarious. Several reports have highlighted the pathetic conditions of the sect, including the International Human Rights Committee report, Ahmadis in Pakistan Face an Existential Threat, published in 2017, which demonstrates that Ahmadis in Pakistan are violently targeted, intimidated, harassed and persecuted at all levels of society. It also testifies to the grave injustices that are meted out to minority religious groups such as Ahmadi Muslims. Likewise, South Asia Democratic Forum’s report, Persecution against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan: A multi-dimensional perspective, published on May 10, 2019, underlined the multifaceted and multidimensional persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan in all spheres of public and private life.

More recently, the US States Commission on International Religious Freedom in its Annual Report 2020, released in April 2020, explaining the situation of Ahmadi community of Pakistan, noted,

In February 2020, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, declaring that minorities are equal citizens of his country, had issued a warning that anyone targeting the non-Muslim population of Pakistan would be strictly dealt with. Regrettably, Khan has failed to back words with convincing action, as evident in the failure to include an Ahmadi representative in the NCM, and also to ensure effective legal action in any of the continuous stream of cases of atrocity and discrimination targeting Ahmadis. Ahmadis, like other religious minorities in Pakistan, continue to face violence and discrimination, targeted by acts of vandalism and violence, forced to declare themselves as “non-Muslims” and prohibited by law from professing or practicing their faith.

SRI LANKA

Re-writing the Constitution
S. Binodkumar Singh
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management

As expected, in the very first meeting of the new Cabinet, held on August 19, 2020, the Sri Lanka Government decided to abolish the 19th Amendment and to bring in the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. Cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters,

Co-Cabinet spokesman Udaya Gammanpila added further,

Commenting on the 20^th Amendment, he stated that “we can’t comment on what will be included in it yet”, but asserted that the Government was keen to “fix the errors of the 19^th Amendment as soon as possible.”

The Cabinet appointed a five-member sub-committee to formulate the 20^th Amendment. The members of the sub-committee include Education Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, Foreign Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Labour Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, Justice Minister Ali Sabry and Energy Minisster Udaya Gammanpila. The sub-committee is to submit their observation to the Cabinet. According to reports, Justice Minister Ali Sabry has been empowered to study the 19^th Amendment and make recommendations to the Cabinet regarding which elements should be carried forward into the 20^th Amendment.

It is pertinent to recall that the then Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa had approved the 18^th Amendment on September 8, 2010, according to which:

Before the introduction of the 18th Amendment the President could seek re-election only twice.

The 'reformist' Ranil Wickremesinghe-led Government, which came in power in 2015, argued that the 19th Amendment was needed to correct the power imbalance created by the 18th. On April 28, 2015, it introduced the19th Amendment to the Constitution, prominently including:

Moreover, on December 29, 2015, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe appointed a 24-member Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PRCCR) composed of academics, lawyers, civil society representatives and politicians of minority parties, to gather public opinion on Constitutional amendments. The PRCCR began collecting grassroots public opinion on January 18, 2016, and completed its work across the country on February 29, 2016. Some 5,000 proposals for constitutional change, both written and oral were presented. Finally, on March 9, 2016, the Sri Lankan Parliament unanimously, without a vote, approved the change of the Parliament into a Constitutional Assembly (CA) to draft a new Constitution for the island nation. The new Constitution was expected to replace the executive President-headed Constitution adopted in 1978, which invested broad executive powers in the office of the President.The new Constitution was expected to abolish the executive Presidency and replace it with a Parliamentary system.

Meanwhile, Rajapaksa’s opposed the 19^th amendment on following grounds:

Rajapaksa vowed to repeal the 19th Amendment if voted back to power. Indeed, in his Policy Statement at the opening session of the 9th Parliament on August 20, 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa asserted,

He elaborated further,

On August 19, the Cabinet also decided to establish a panel of eminent persons to formulate a new Constitution and asked the Justice Minister to recommend names for the panel to be considered for Cabinet approval. Co-Cabinet spokesman Udaya Gammanpila noted,

The Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka People's Party (SLPP) sought a two thirds Parliamentary mandate or 150 seats in the 225-member assembly to effect constitutional changes, the foremost of them, the move to abolish the 19th Amendment. During the Parliamentary Elections held on August 5, 2020, SLPP won 145 seats. Adding six seats from its allies including two seats of the Eelam People's Democratic Party and one each of Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal, Sri Lanka Freedom Party, National Congress and All Ceylon Makkal Congress, to the tally, the SLPP alliance is 151-strong, giving it the two-thirds majority it sought.

Meanwhile, reacting to President Rajapaksa's assertion that "priority will be given to the concept of one country, one law for all the people", Chief Opposition Whip, Lakshman Kiriella, told Parliament,

Kandyan law is a customary law that originates from the 'Kingdom' of Kandy, which is applicable to Sri Lankans who are Buddhist and from the former provinces of the Kandyan Kingdom. Thesavalamai law is a collection of the Customs of the Malabar Inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna and was given full force by the Regulation of 1806. The Law in its present form applies to most Tamils in northern Sri Lanka. The law is personal in nature,and thus applicable mostly to issues of property, inheritance, and marriage. Muslim law is also a customary law which is applicable to Sri Lankans who are Muslims by virtue of birth and conversion to Islam. It governs aspects of marriage, divorce custody and maintenance.

Apprehensive of an imminent threat, Thamizh Makkal Thesiya Kootanii leader and former Northern Province Chief Minister, C. V. Wigneswaran on August 20, 2020, urged the Government,

However, in his Policy Statement on August 20, 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had asserted,

By rewriting the Constitution, the Rajapaksa's grip on power will strengthen as the country will return to its previous Constitutional status, in which the President could head Ministries, appoint and dismiss Ministers, appoint officials for the Police, Judiciary and public service and dissolve Parliament at any time after one year. The massive victory of the SLPP, a party that occupies the far-right end of the Sinhala Buddhist ideological spectrum, jeopardises the pluralistic cultural landscape of Sri Lanka and the peaceful coexistence of the different ethnic communities. Rajapaksa's talk about Constitutional reforms cannot escape the national burden of the strife-riven past and its unresolved ethnic issue.