KARACHI: Police on Friday registered a criminal case against over two dozen members of the Ahmadiyya community and arrested six of them on the complaint of a Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) activist in Surjani Town on Friday.

Earlier in the day, the police took into protective custody 25 Ahmadis after TLP activists gathered outside their place of worship in Surjani Town to prevent them from offering “Friday prayers”.

Officials said that an FIR was lodged on the complaint of local TLP office-bearer Irfan Gujjar against 19 named and over a dozen unknown members of the community under Section 298 (uttering words, etc, with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

DIG-West Irfan Ali Baloch told Dawn that several workers of TLP gathered outside a house in Sector-4-A, Surjani Town. They demanded that the members of the Ahmadiyya community present inside be prevented from offering Friday prayer and using ‘signs of Islam’.

He said apprehending the law and order situation, the police took 25 Ahmadis into ‘protective custody’.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya community, Amir Mehmood, claimed the police have detained 25 Ahmadis, including eight children, and taken them to the Khawaja Ajmer Nagri police station.

He said TLP workers had been gathering outside their place of worship for quite some time and were demanding the arrest and sealing of their centres.

He said the members practised religious rites inside closed buildings and wondered how this could be a “crime”. He said that detaining them for performing their rituals “was a grave violation of human rights and Pakistan’s Constitution, which allowed freely practicing faith”.

According to the FIR, the complainant nominated over 20 members of the Ahmadiyya community and stated that the police had arrested six of them. He said that he came to know that Ahmadis have been offering Friday prayers at a house in Yousuf Goth, and after monitoring the activities there for over a month, he called the TLP leaders and then Madadgar-15 on Friday so that they could be stopped from offering Friday prayers.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2025