Karachi:
A mafia beat to death, a member of the persecuted minority of Ahmadiyya on Friday after hundreds of radical Islamists surrounded their place of worship in the port city of Karachi, police said.
“A community member was killed after the mafia identified him as Ahmadi. They attacked him with sticks and bricks,” Muhammad Safdar, a senior official of the Local Police, told AFP.
“The mafia included members of several religious parties,” he added.
Safdar said the police took around 25 Ahmadis in custody for their safety.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw a prison truck escorted by police vehicles that took the men Ahmadi, after negotiating with the multitude of 600 people.
A local resident among the crowd told AFP that he joined the group to press the police to arrest Ahmadis.
“We request that the place be sealed and that those who perform Friday’s sentences are arrested, with criminal procedures initiated against them,” said Abdul Qadir Ashrafi.
The Ahmadiyya community is considered heretics by the Pakistani government and has been persecuted for decades, but threats and intimidation have intensified in recent years.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a union feed).
