The daily Dawn on February 13, 2022 published this story. Although not directly related to Ahmadis, it reflects clearly and boldly the environment of violent extremism on religious grounds, in the country. It is a cause of extreme concern to marginalized communities — even to every average citizen interested in peace, harmony and the rule of law. The story:
Lynching horror visits Khanewal
2022-02-13 in the daily Dawn
LAHORE. A middle-aged man was stoned to death by a mob over alleged desecration of the Holy Quran in a remote village of Khanewal district on Saturday.
The killing comes on the heels of an identical incident in Sialkot, where factory workers lynched a Sri Lankan engineer on Dec 3 last year on blasphemy charges.
The Saturday incident took place in Jungle Dera village where hundreds of locals gathered after Maghreb prayers following announcements that a man had torn some pages of the Holy Quran and later set them on fire.
With no one ready to listen to the suspect, who reportedly claimed innocence, the villagers first hanged him with a tree and then hit him with bricks, until he died.
According to an eyewitness, a police team that reached the village well before stoning arrested the suspect but the growing mob snatched him from the SHO’s custody. Chief Minister Usman Buzdar sought a report from IGP Rao Sardar Ali Khan. Imran Gabol
A noteworthy comment: Mr. Pervaiz Rashid, a senior political leader commented upon this incident and summed up the issue in a few lines that are significant and proposed a solution to this grave problem. He said:
“The Mian Channu (District Khanewal) tragedy was neither first nor the last. So long as the state and opinion makers continue to promote bigotry (Jahalat) humanity will continue to perish.” (The daily Dunya, Faisalabad; February 14, 2022)
P.S. According to BBC Urdu, the deceased’s brother Zulfiqar Ahmad stated that Mushtaq Ahmad was mentally unstable, and he found all fingers cut off from the corpse.
