‘Go Back To Pakistan’: Ahmadi Refugees Face Violence In Sri Lanka In Aftermath Of Easter Sunday Terror Attack

A section of Ahmadi Muslims refugees in Sri Lanka have approached the police for protection fearing violent reprisals after the Easter Sunday terror attack, Sri Lankan Mirror reported.

A large number of Ahmadi Muslims sought asylum in Sri Lanka after fleeing their homes in Pakistan over militant attacks and government persecution and currently live in resettlement colonies in Pasyala and Negombo.

Hundreds of Pakistani Ahmadi refugees in Sri Lanka have taken refuge in mosques and a police station after facing intimidation following the dastardly Easter Sunday bombings.

Close to 200 Ahmadi refugees are lodged in an Ahmadi mosque in Negombo and more than 500 have sought shelter in a makeshift camp in the small town of Pasyala, 30 kilometers away.

While police and soldiers protect the mosque in Negombo, the local police are guarding the under-construction Ahmadi community centre in Pasyala.

Quoting local residents, The New York Times reported that in the town of Negombo, where a suicide bombing attack on a church during Easter services killed more than 100 people ,“gangs of Christian men moved from house to house, smashing windows, breaking down doors, dragging people into the streets, punching them in the face and then threatening to kill them”.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe acknowledged the attacks the Ahmadis faced during an AP interview on Thursday night (25 April) and promised that the authorities would work towards ensuring their safety.

According to the President of the Pasyala Ahamadiya Muslim Organisation Hafiz Ahmed, the protesting gang of residents reportedly demanded that this group of Pakistanis be deported immediately.

“The people in Pakistan attacked us and say we’re not Muslims,” said Tariq Ahmed, a 58-year-old Ahmadi who fled his home. “Then in Sri Lanka, people attack us because they say we are Muslims”.

Ahmadis faced a state sanctioned discrimination for practising their religion in Pakistan, where they were declared non-Muslims under a constitutional amendment passed in 1974 under the then Prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto , following months of rioting.

During the tenure of military dictator Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, an even more draconian Ordinance XX was passed. According to this law, Ahmadis who “pose to be Muslims” or an Ahmadi who “refers to his faith as Islam” could be punished under law with a jail term of up to three years.

In addition, Ahmadis could no longer call their places of worship mosques or refer to the call for prayer as azan. As recently as May 2010 in Lahore two Ahmadi mosques were attacked, resulting in the deaths of nearly 100 people.