SIALKOT: Twenty-three members of the minority Ahmadi community were arrested in Punjab on Saturday for offering ‘Friday prayers’, which is prohibited for them under the law.
According to the Hindustan Times report, Punjab police received a call that 27 Ahmadis were offering Jumma prayers at their place of worship at Daska, Sialkot.
‘Ahmadis’ prayer leader Arshad Sahi was giving Friday sermon and was reading Islamic verses and other Ahmadis were listening to him, police officer Muhammad Tanzeel told.
“After hurting the sentiments of local Muslims, the police registered an FIR against these 27 Ahmadis under Section 298 C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC),” Tanzeel said, and 23 of them were arrested.
Section 298 C criminalizes Ahmadis who call themselves Muslims.
Although Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, Pakistan’s parliament declared the community non-Muslim in 1974. A decade later, they were not only banned from calling themselves Muslims but also from practicing aspects of Islam.
