LAHORE: Two men belonging to the Ahmadiyya community were shot dead in two strikes by a 19 years old religious student in Phalia tehsil of Mandi Bahauddin district on Saturday afternoon.

Community spokesperson Aamir Mahmood told Dawn the killings took place in same locality with a difference of 20 minutes.

He said the attacker in both the cases was a student of a religious seminary in the same locality as its teachers were involved in hate speech campaign against their community.

He said Ghulam Sarwar, 64, of Saadullahpur locality was on way home after having afternoon prayers at the community worship place when a youth opened fire at him opposite his house. He died on the spot as the attacker left the scene. The victim was a father of six.

In second strike, Rahat Ahmad Bajwa (30), a cook at a centre in the locality, was shot at by the same accused. A father of two, Bajwaa died on the spot.

When the locals alerted police, it chased the attacker and arrested him.

Mandi Bahauddin District Police Officer (DPO) Ahmad Mohyyuddin told Dawn the police caught the attacker and recovered the pistol.

He said suspect Ali Raza, 19, had confessed to killing the two members of the minority community.

He said the suspect claimed that he had listened to different speeches against the minority community on social media platforms like Youtube and Facebook which made him to carry out the killings. The DPO said the teenager had bought a pistol as he wanted to kill every Ahmadi.

He said the suspect belonged to the same locality and knew about the religious beliefs of the slain.

He said the case was registered against the suspect under terrorism charges. He said the police would also look into possible involvement of other person(s) in the case.

Punjab IGP Dr Usman Anwar sought report from the Gujranwala RPO and instructed Mandi Bahauddin DPO to form a special team to conduct a probe.The community spokesperson said a hate campaign had been launched for the last few weeks ahead of Eidul Azha in a bid to stop their community from observing the occasion.

He said the religious seminary belonged to Ahal-e-Sunnat and its head teacher was continuously propagating against their religion and hurling threats of dire consequences.He said several hate videos were viral on social media against their community over observing Eidul Azha. He said speakers were hurling threats of dire consequences but the state was not taking any action against them.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2024