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Karachi (Agenzia Fides) - A homeopathic doctor belonging to the Ahmadiyya community was killed in his clinic in Karachi on June 20. Chaudhry Khaliq Ahmad was killed by unknown assailants while he was on his way to visit patients in his clinic. He was shot several times and died while being transported to hospital.
This is the latest of a series of targeted killings of representatives regarding the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan, a Muslim sect considered by Sunni and Shiite believers "heretical" and therefore marginalized and persecuted. The Ahmadis are not even allowed to call themselves "Muslims".
In the last five weeks, there have been several killings motivated only by religious hatred: on June 5, another doctor Hameed Ahmed, was killed outside his home in Attock by two unidentified men. On 25 May, Daud Ahmad was killed near his home in Karachi neighborhood.
As Fides learns, the spokesman for the the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan, Salim Ud Din, said, "I am shocked and saddened by the news of the murder of Chaudhry Khaliq Ahmad. Words cannot describe the pain that I and all Ahmadis feel in Pakistan and around the world, because of this heinous act. It seems that there is no respite for the Ahmadi also in the holy month of Ramadan. We are being targeted in a clear and methodical manner. Authorities must act quickly to end these indiscriminate killings".
The NGO Christian Solidarity Worldwide said in a note sent to Fides: "We are appalled by this unstoppable trail of targeted killings of members of the Ahmadiyya community and the impunity that characterizes these attacks. We urge the police to arrest and prosecute those responsible, and we ask the government in Pakistan to change the discriminatory legislation, adopting adequate measures to reduce the vulnerability of the Ahmadiyya community and other religious minorities in Pakistan".
The Ahmadiyya community, has been declared "non-Muslim" in the Constitution of 1974. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/06/2015)
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