2005 Mong shootings

2005 Mong shootings
Location of Mandi Bahauddin District, Punjab, Pakistan
Location	Mong, Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab, Pakistan
Date	7 October 2005
Target	Ahmadi Muslims
Attack type	Shooting
Deaths	8
Injured	20
Motive	Islamic Terrorism

The 2005 Mong shooting was an Islamic Terrorist attack that occurred on 7 October 2005 in Mong in the Mandi Bahauddin District of Punjab, Pakistan. Eight members of the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim Community were killed inside a mosque as worshippers were performing Salat.

Background

The Ahmadiyya movement was started in 1889 and follows the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who they believe was sent by God as a prophet and the Promised Messiah and Imam Mehdi prophesied in Islam "to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed and re-institute morality, justice and peace." It is estimated there are between three and four million Ahmadis in Pakistan.

The Ahmadiyya Muslims have previously been targeted by Sunni groups, while they have also suffered discrimination in Pakistan in the past, most significantly during the Lahore riots of 1953. They were declared non-Muslim in Pakistan in 1973 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and were legally banned from identifying themselves as such in 1984 during General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamisation as per Ordinance XX, despite Ahmadis calling themselves Muslim and following the rituals of Islam.

In August 2005, authorities closed down the offices of 16 publications run by followers of the sect in a Punjab city for "propagation of offensive material".

Attack

Three men riding on a motorcycle holding guns, came into the village of Mong in Mandi Bauddin on Friday morning. Two of the perpetrators went inside the mosque and started firing immediately, killing eight people. The attackers managed to escape after the attack.

Response

According to what a witness told Ahmadi author Qasim Rahid, police showed up several hours after the killing and "made no effort" to find the killers. Amnesty International stated that:

Police investigations of previous targeted killings of Ahmadis in Pakistan have been slow or have not taken place at all. In many cases the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. Amnesty International believes that the government's consistent failure to investigate attacks and killings of members of religious minorities fails to discourage further human rights abuses against such groups.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao stated: "We condemn this attack. Any act of violence in which innocent people are killed should be condemned."

Human rights groups have stated that Ahmadis have constantly suffered persecution in Pakistan and Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said the government had failed to protect minorities.