A 120-year-old worship place of the minority Ahmadi community was demolished by police on the pressure of a radical Islamist party in Pakistan’s Punjab province, a community organisation said. The police also detained five Ahmadis for protesting the demolition of their worship place in the Chatha area of Gujranwala, some 80 km from Lahore. 

“A team of police personnel along with the members of the radical Islamist party (Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan) entered the Ahmadi worship place last week and demolished it. They cut down minarets with a grinder,” Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan (JAP) said. Under the law, the Ahmadi worship places built before 1984 cannot be demolished.