Police Register Fresh Cases Against Worshippers in Lahore Amid Escalating Crackdown

(Lahore, Pakistan) –Pakistani police registered new criminal cases against more than 50 Ahmadis in Lahore for participating in Friday prayers on 21 March 2025, while unidentified assailants desecrated 76 Ahmadi graves in Kotli, Azad Kashmir.

The incidents formed part of a wider escalation during Ramadan, during which Ahmadi Friday prayers have become a repeated trigger for arrests, police action, mob pressure, and attacks on religious and burial sites across Pakistan.

On 21 March, a cemetery belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Kotli, Azad Kashmir, was targeted in an overnight attack in which 76 gravestones were defaced or destroyed by unidentified individuals. The cemetery had been established before the 1984 anti-Ahmadi Ordinance and was enclosed by a boundary wall.

The desecrations took place during the early hours of the morning during a reported power outage. No arrests were made.

On the same day, police in Lahore registered two new criminal cases against members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community for participating in Friday prayer services. In Raiwind, three individuals were formally charged. A separate First Information Report registered at Islampura Police Station named eight identified Ahmadis and implicated an additional 40 unnamed worshippers.

The cases followed earlier police action in Karachi, Daska, and Sargodha, where Ahmadi congregational worship had also been criminalised. More than two dozen Ahmadis were imprisoned across Pakistan in connection with charges arising from their participation in Friday prayer services.

Amnesty International condemned the ongoing attacks and called for the immediate release of all Ahmadis detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief. Amnesty said that local authorities must protect Ahmadi places of worship and hold accountable any officials involved in harassment or destruction of Ahmadiyya property, adding that such actions violate Article 20 of Pakistan’s Constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations.

Policy Research Institute for South Asia London Director of Research Mary Hunter also warned of heightened risks during the holy month, stating that Ramadan can be a particularly dangerous period for Ahmadis in Pakistan and that, since developments in the Mubarak Sani case, “the space in which Ahmadis can express their faith is shrinking.”