By IANS,
Toronto : Ahmadiyyas of Canada have sought international intervention to stop persecution of their community in Pakistan following the murder of a doctor couple by extremists in Multan.
Under Pakistani laws, the Ahmadiyyas have been declared a non-Muslim sect as they believe that their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmed was the last promised messiah. Due to this, they have been persecuted by mainstream Muslims who believe Prophet Muhammad was the last messiah.
In a statement here Tuesday, the community strongly condemned Pakistan for failing to protect a prominent Ahmadiyya doctor couple from Islamist fundamentalists who killed them last Saturday.
The bodies of 37-year-old Shiraz Bajwa and his 29-year-old wife Noreen Bajwa were found in their bedroom by their housekeeper. Noreen was pregnant with the couple’s first child, the statement added.
Quoting reports from Pakistan, the statement said the body of Shiraz Bajwa bore marks of strangulation. Both had their hands tied behind the back, eyes blindfolded and mouth gagged.
While Shiraz Bajwa was an eye-specialist at a local hospital, his wife worked at a children’s hospital.
The statement said the couple had been receiving death threats from religious extremists because of their faith.
Despite their peaceful history, it said the Ahmadiyyas have been subjected to an unprecedented level of violence in Pakistan.
According to the statement, the doctor couple became the 99th and 100th victims of this violence since 1984. It also cited the continued detention of four Ahmadiyya boys for the past seven weeks on charges of blasphemy which can be punishable with death.
Urging the international community to help the Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan, the Canadian group’s spokesman Abid Khan said: “Pakistan is a country that is currently facing absolute ruin…the hateful acts of religious extremists are ever-increasing to the extent that loving, caring and innocent people are being murdered because they belong to a community whose motto is ‘love for all, hatred for none’.”