Punjab Medical College Expels 23 Ahmedi Students

June 5, 2008: Punjab Medical College expelled 23 students belonging to Ahmedi faith. Few days before expulsions it was alleged that they were preaching their faith.

BBC reported that Islami Jamiat-e-tulba students surrounded the principal's offices and raised slogans against the Ahmedi students. List of 23 Ahmedi students, rusticated from the college, was then released by the college administration. The same day, a mob of about 300 college students also barged into Ahmedis students’ rooms, beat them and threw their luggage out of their rooms.

Ahmedis, like other minorities, have been persecuted in Pakistan using discriminatory laws. They have faced hostile environments in Pakistan where they have been mascaraed at their religious places (click here for firing on Ahmedi Mosque).

ANAA takes a strong stand supporting Ahmedi students and demands that:

1. Students should be immediately re-instated.

2. Incident should be properly investigated and perpetrators identified and punished so that all minorities feel safe in the university.

Brief History of Ahmedi community click here

List of Ahmedis persecuted in Pakistan click here

Amnesty on Religious Freedom in Pakistan click here

2006: US state Department on Religious Freedom in Pakistan click here

News Reports:

BBC Coverage of the incident in Urdu click here
8th June: Further details of the incident leading to Ahmedi students expulsion: Daily Times
6th June 2008: DAWN, Daily Times

Dr. Younus Sheikh: Another Blasphemy Victim

Oct 2000: Dr. Younus Sheikh imprisoned on charges of Blasphemy. His crime was the answers he gave to his students about whether the Prophet Mohammad followed Muslim practices before he assumed prophethood. Those who brought the charges had not been present in the lecture hall and are known for their sectarian bias.

Aug 2001: He was given death sentence.

Nov 2003: He was acquitted and freed after an appeal and retrial.

Background to Dr. Younus Sheikh Case:

Born in 1952. Graduated medicine from Multan and did post graduate from Dublin and England. Served as a trainee surgeon in England from 1981-88. Returned to Pakistan and was teaching in a medical college in Islamabad.

He was active in Human right groups and at a meeting of the South Asian Union on 1^st October 2000, Younus Shaikh suggested that, in the interest of the people of Kashmir, the line of control between the Indian and Pakistani forces should become the international border. This clearly offended a Pakistani officer who responded by saying to Dr Shaikh that “I will crush the heads of those that talk like this”. On 3^rd October Dr Shaikh was suspended by his college without explanation.

Later that evening, an employee of the Pakistani Foreign Office, who was also one of Dr Shaikh’s students, complained to a cleric, saying that on 2^nd October in a lecture between 12:00 noon and 12:40 pm, the doctor had made blasphemous remarks about the Prophet of Islam. The cleric filed a complaint with the police. Younus Shaikh was arrested on the evening of 4^th October and charged with blasphemy. case details


Dr. Younus Sheikh thank you letter after relesed to International Humanist and ehthical union. click here

Blasphemy Law:

Blasphemy Law was enacted by Zia-ul-Haq in his drive to Islamize Pakistan.

Once accused you are put in prison. Trials are in a hostile court room where victim's lawyer is thretened with harm to them and their family. Following people were shot dead by extremist during the trial:

As recently as July 2002, Mohammed Yousaf was shot dead inside the Central Gaol in Lahore while awaiting his appeal. On 7th February 2003, Mushtaq Zafar, a 55 year-old man accused of blasphemy was shot dead on his way home from the High Court. And in June 2003, Naseem Bibi, 35, who had been the victim of a gang rape by police, was charged with blasphemy, and was murdered in prison before her trial could begin.

Amnesty writes that "The blasphemy laws of Pakistan are a handy tool to silence debate and dissent. They are also used to detain people when the real motivation includes land issues or professional rivalry. In the interest of justice, the blasphemy laws should be abolished or as a first step amended to prevent abuse." Amnesty Report Aug 2001

Blashphemy Law 295-C

Ahmadiyya Community: Innocents Killed because of their Faith.

Oct 30, 2000 - in a village near Sialkot, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed was among 5 dead and seven injured when un-identified men opened fire on members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community when they were offering Fajr (morning) prayers inside their Mosque.

The motive for the attack is not yet known but human rights groups have constantly highlighted the persecution suffered by the Ahmedis in Pakistan.

A 1974 constitutional amendment during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government had declared the sect outside Islam after a countrywide movement against them.

A 1984 decree by military ruler General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq banned it from using Islamic forms of worship or describing its places of worship as mosques. Ahmedis are reviled by Muslims as heretics who believe that Holy Prophet Mohammed (Pbuh) is the last prophet.



Sources also speculate involvement of a feared underground outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, in the killing. "LJ has a history of attacking Ahmedis and their involvement is a possibility," a police source said quoting the kidnapping-cum-murder of a Qadiani in Chiniot last year. Three LJ activists including Ijaz alias Jaji were killed in a police shootout after they had kidnapped and killed a Qadiani.

Complete Press report of the incident. click here

Who is responsible for the persecution. The rabid mullah bend upon using religion as "political capital" or the civil society which tolerates the persecution of innocents.

These issues needs to be discussed and laws like Blasphemy, Hudood Ordinance, Qisas and Diyat have no place if we want to see a modern progressive Pakistan.

Brief History of Ahmadiya community click here

List of Ahmedis persecuted in Pakistan click here

Amnesty on Religious Freedom in Pakistan click here

2006: US state Department on Religious Freedom in Pakistan click here

Why Bishop John Joseph shot himself?

Sahiwal , 6 May 1998 at 9:30 PM, great human right defender, Bishop John Joseph shot himself in the same court room where , a Christian man, Ayub Masih, had been condemned to death for blasphemy against Islam. His crime: He allegedly had spoken favorably of British author Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

Dennis Coddy of National Catholic reporter writes that for Joseph, the persecution of Ayub Masih symbolized the plight of all Christians in Pakistan. Masih -- a name given to all Christians in Pakistan -- was the fourth Christian to be sentenced to death for blasphemy in that country since the early 1990s. Several Christians have been killed in mob violence while awaiting trail for blasphemy charges.

Joseph said the charges against Ayub Masih had been trumped up to force 15 Christian families out in a local land dispute.

Speaking at a rally in Vienna, Austria, in March 1998, one of his last public speeches outside Pakistan, Joseph, summed up the sentiments of Christians in Pakistan, had warned, "We have had enough. We shall protest in such a way that the world will be shocked."

In Pakistan, people saw his action as like that of a mother who throws herself in the line of fire to save her child from being killed, he said. "The words of Ayub Masih's mother sum it up: `He died to save my son's life.'"

Earlier in Lahore on April 7, 1994, at the funeral of Manzoor Masih (another Christian charged with blasphemy who was gunned down outside the courthouse while still on trial), Joseph publicly announced that he was ready to die if necessary.

Mendes recalls the words the bishop preached at Manzoor Masih's funeral: "Bishop John said, `Manzoor, we are sorry this happened to you. If anybody's blood was needed, I should have been the first. I shall shed my blood but will not allow the blood of my people to spill in the country.' (Full article)

Bishop death should be remembered as a sacrifies he gave to save life of others. We should educate ourselves about the Blasphemy law and organize to work towards its repeal. Bishop should be remembered as a real leader, a true hero who died for his followers.

AHRC on Bishops death. (click here)
Bishop hailed as Qui Kyun of South Asia (Click here)
NCJP, founded by Bishop himself, statement on Bishop's death (Statement)