LAHORE: Police on Monday arrested five suspects for desecrating a minority community worship place in Sargodha district.

According to the Ahmadiyya community spokesperson, some miscreants had attacked their 118-year old worship place late on Sunday night.

He said the attack on Ahmadiyya worship places was a blatant violation of Pakistan’s constitution and Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jilani’s decision in 2014.

“This must stop immediately and religious minorities must be protected,” he said.

He said peaceful Ahamdi community members were being attacked in Punjab and no measures were being taken to provide them security.

Sargodha DPO Faisal Kamran told Dawn five main suspects who attacked and desecrated the worship place had been arrested and a case was also registered against them.

He said the police would approach the Archaeology Department to check the age of the worship place.

He said strict legal action would be taken against the attackers over desecration of the minority community’s worship places.

He denied the presence of police and district administration officials when the worship place was being attacked.

Mr Kamran said the police had controlled the situation as per law and no one would be allowed to take law into their hands.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023