Gunmen 'desecrate' graves?

04 Dec, 2012

Gunmen on Monday 'desecrated' graves of Ahmadis in Lahore, members of the minority community said. More than a dozen masked men broke into an Ahmadi graveyard in the upmarket Model Town area of Lahore before dawn and after tying up the security guard and caretaker vandalised graves, community spokesman Salimud Din said. The attackers shattered the tomb stones of about 120 graves and left, he claimed.
Din said police took no action after similar incidents a few months ago in Faisalabad and the central town of Lodhran. "The government has failed to protect our human rights and Ahmadis' life and property is not safe in Pakistan," Din said.
Shahid Ataullah, a local Ahmadi elder, said the attackers came around 2:00am and threatened the guard and caretaker with "dire consequences." Members of the community were discussing whether or not to lodge a formal complaint with police, he said. "We are under lots of pressure and the objective seems to be to harass us," Ataullah said. Police said that they were not aware of the incident. "There is no such thing in our knowledge. We will take action when someone files a report about the incident," local police station chief Idrees Qureshi told AFP.

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