In this Oct 30, 2000 photo, villagers visit Bait al-Zikr Mosque in Sialkot district, 150 kilometers west of Lahore in Pakistan’s Punjab province, after an attack on members of minority Ahmadi sect who had gathered for daily prayers. Extremists demolished a mosque belonging to the Ahmadi sect in Sialkot I a pre-dawn attack on May 24, 2018. (PHOTO / AFP)
ISLAMABAD — Sunni extremists have demolished a mosque belonging to Pakistan's minority Ahmadi sect in the eastern city of Sialkot, the latest mob attack on minorities in the country.
No one was inside the Ahmadiyya Mosque and there were no casualties in the pre-dawn assault on Thursday. The mosque had been shut years ago by authorities to avoid violence.
A video of the attack surfaced on social media, showing a mob demolishing the mosque, which is said to have been visited by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who founded the Ahmadi faith in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century. His followers believe he was a prophet.
READ MORE: Pakistan's long-persecuted Ahmadi minority fear becoming election scapegoat
In this Dec 14, 2015 photo, a sign is displayed outside a shop "banning Ahmadi customers from entering" at a market in Lahore. (ARIF ALI / AFP)
Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974.
Ahmadis make a tiny minority of the Muslim-majority Pakistan and are often targeted by Sunni militants who consider them heretics.
Copyright 1995 - 2024. All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily. Without written authorization from China Daily, such content shall not be republished or used in any form.