After months of social media hate speech targeting, the Ahmadiyya community’s place of worship was destroyed in Garmola Virkan, a village located in Gujranwala in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
A mob had assembled near the mosque in board daylight. After that, the local municipal authority members — armed with axes, hammers, and rods — came and climbed atop the building. They tore the minarets and desecrating the kalma (Islamic phrase) inscribed on the mosque’s facade.
We won’t let anyone from the outside touch the minarets or the kalma,” Aamir Mahmood, a spokesperson for the Ahmadi community and head of their media cell, told media. “Police, however, is a representative of the state, so we can’t stop them.”
Article 20 of the Constitution of Pakistan grants all citizens the right to profess their religion.
In 1974, through the Second Amendment to the Constitution, Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims in the country.
