Attack Follows Escalating Anti-Ahmadi Hostility in the Local Area

(Sahiwal, Pakistan) – Unknown assailants desecrated seven Ahmadi graves in village 37/12-L, Tehsil Chichawatni, District Sahiwal, on 16 March 2025, damaging gravestones and removing the names “Muhammad” and “Ahmad” from the headstones.

The graves were located in a private burial ground established by the local Ahmadiyya Muslim Community on its own land after persistent sectarian hostility had made burial in shared graveyards unsafe.

According to local reports, the names were deliberately erased from seven graves in an act of targeted religious vandalism. No arrests were made.

Community members said the desecration followed weeks of rising hostility in the village, including anti-Ahmadi slogans painted on public walls and inflammatory sermons delivered from local mosques against the community.

Local Ahmadis had established the cemetery after repeated objections and threats from anti-Ahmadi groups made burials in common graveyards increasingly difficult.