CHAKWAL: Three prominent Ahmadya community members have been placed under one-month custody by the district administration of Chakwal, purportedly to stop them from sacrificing animals in honor of the approaching Eidul Azha.
On June 10, the three men were ordered to be detained by Chakwal’s Deputy Commissioner Quratul Ain Malik in three different orders. The men were subsequently taken into custody by the police and imprisoned in Jhelum.
These three men are from the village of Dulmial, where two people were killed in a mob attack on a place of worship in December 2016. Following the incident, the local government locked the revered site, an ancient mosque constructed in the middle of the 19th century, and its future remains uncertain.
The district police officer claimed in a report that DC Malik received that all three men “may cause deterioration for law and order situation in the area” and asked that their detention orders be issued under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order 1960. Copies of these orders are available with Dawn.
Following a discussion of the issue on June 10, the District Intelligence Committee unanimously recommended that all three of these individuals be placed under arrest in order to prevent a sectarian confrontation and maintain peace and order.
In an interview with Dawn, Amir Mehmood, a representative for Jamaat-e-Ahmadya, stated that all three individuals had been invited to a meeting with police officials and assistant commissioner Choa Saidan Shah to discuss the impending Eidul Azah on Monday.
“The complainants—the Ahmadya community’s opponents—were present at that meeting as well. The Ahmadya delegation was subjected to intense pressure not to conduct the Qurbani. In addition, he added that they were instructed to provide a surety bond pledging that neither they nor any other Ahmadi in the district would recite Qurbani while they were being harassed.
In the meantime, Amnesty International tweeted that the Punjab government should free the three men right now and make sure the Ahmadya community is protected, especially on Eidul Azha, so they can practice their religion in peace.
