LAHORE, Pakistan - Gunmen in Pakistan on Saturday shot dead a farmer from the Ahmadi community, one of the country's most persecuted minority groups, police and a spokesman said.
Luqman Ahad, 25 was hit by a single bullet in his head and died on the spot, Rohail Sabir, a senior police official in Gujranwala told AFP.
Ahmadis, were declared non-Muslims by the Pakistani government in 1974 and now suffer discrimination and violent attacks.
Police are investigating the motives for the killing, which occurred early Saturday in a village in the eastern district of Gujranwala, more than 100 kilometres north of Lahore.
"Luqman Ahad was murdered while he was on his way from his home to his farm," said Saleem ud Din, a spokesman for the community.
Founded by Ghulam Ahmad, who was born in 1838, the Ahmadi sect believes that Ahmad himself was a prophet and that Jesus died aged 120 in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir.
They are frequently attacked, accused of blasphemy and subjected to discrimination in education and the workplace. They are also banned from going on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
In October, a retired air force official who was a member of the minority group was shot dead north of Islamabad. An Ahmadi doctor was gunned down the month before in Mirpur Khas.
In July, an angry mob torched an Ahmadi neighbourhood in the city of Gujranwala, killing a woman and two girls after a local Ahmadi boy was accused of blasphemy.
AFP
