Islamist mobs attack Chief Justice of Pakistan; place bounty on his head

New Delhi: Islamist mobs attacked the Supreme Court of Pakistan following a ruling by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa that an Ahmadi man, charged with blasphemy, has the right to practice his religion. 

This decision led to widespread unrest, with the Chief Justice accused of blasphemy and a bounty placed on his life. 

Mobs from Islamist Organizations stormed into Supreme Court premises demanding the Chief Justice’s resignation.

The mobs breached Islamabad’s highly secured, Red Zone storming the Supreme Court entrance gates.

The incident underscores the deep religious tensions in Pakistan, where even judicial affirmations of religious freedom incite violent reactions from extremist groups, highlighting the precarious situation of religious minorities in the country.

Last month, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) Deputy Emir Pir Zaheerul Hasan Shah, who had gone into hiding in Okara city in the eastern Punjab province, was arrested for inciting violence against Chief Justice.

A week before the arrest, a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Isa, partially accepted review petitions in the Mubarak Sani case, ruling that Ahmadis retain the right to profess and proliferate their religion, provided they do not publicly use Muslim terms or introduce themselves as Muslims.

Pakistan's Parliament in 1974 declared the Ahmadi community as non-Muslims. A decade later, they were banned from calling themselves Muslims. They are banned from preaching and from travelling to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.

According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2021, there are 96.47 per cent Muslims in the country, followed by 2.14 per cent Hindus, 1.27 per cent Christians, 0.09 per cent Ahmadi Muslims and 0.02 per cent others.

The minorities in conservative Muslim-majoriy Pakistan often complain of harassment by the extremists.