Giani Gurbachan Singh Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib being Honoured during the ‘Jalsa Salana’, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, at Qadian in Gurdaspur district. (Source: EXPRESS PHOTO BY RANA SIMRANJIT SINGH) Giani Gurbachan Singh Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib being Honoured during the ‘Jalsa Salana’, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, at Qadian in Gurdaspur district. (Source: EXPRESS PHOTO BY RANA SIMRANJIT SINGH)

They are, perhaps, Pakistan’s most persecuted community. Forget claiming to be Muslim or describing their place of worship as a mosque, even the greeting “assalamu alaikum” (peace be upon you) could land Ahmadiyyas in jail for three years there.

So much so, renowned nuclear physicist, the late Abdus Salam, never got his due in Pakistan despite winning the Nobel — because of the Ahmadiyya tag.

And so, over the last three days, as 6,000 Ahmadiyyas from the estimated 20 lakh in Pakistan made a pilgrimage to Qadian in Gurdaspur, where the sect’s founder Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born and lies buried, the mood was summed up by a retired engineer from Lahore.

“When we come here, we forget the difficulties we face back home,” said Mubarak Ahmed.

Ahmed was part of the nearly 20,000 Ahmadiyyas from 44 countries, including Jordan, Germany, Russia, the UK and the US, who gathered here for the three-day Jalsa Salana, an annual conference. The community is estimated to have over 170 million followers worldwide, with at least 100,000 in India.

In 1889, Ghulam Ahmad had proclaimed himself to be the messiah that Prophet Mohammed had promised would arrive as a reformer. It’s mainly for this claim that mainstream Islam does not recognise Ahmadiyyas as Muslims. Yet, Pakistan is the only country that has criminalised Ahmadiyya links to Islam, referring to them only as the “Qadiani group”.

Since Saturday, though, Qadian has been a beehive of activity with community-run guest houses and community kitchens, fashioned on the gurdwara langar model and equipped with special roti-makers from Libya, working overtime for the conference.

On Monday, the visitors assembled for the address of the UK-based community leader of Pakistani origin, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, whose speech in Urdu was telecast live from London by MTA, the Ahmadiyya channel.

With simultaneous translations in several Indian languages, apart from English, Indonesian, Arabic and Russian, Masroor Ahmad spoke about how the community was gaining new followers, especially in West African countries such as Mali where jihadists have been gaining ground.

“Everywhere, despite strenuous efforts to keep people away from us, more and more people are realising the truth,” he said.

Referring to the recent killings of Ahmadiyyas in Bangladesh, he asked the community not to let its guard down “even for a moment”.

In other speeches made over the last three days, the common theme was: be law-abiding citizens, be loyal to the nation that offers shelter, shun extremism and militancy.

On Sunday, Maulana Giani Tanveer Ahmed Khadim Sahib, an Ahmadiyya preacher, answered this question: what if your nation persecutes you to a point that it becomes unbearable? “Leave the country and go to a place that allows you to follow your religion in peace”.

In keeping with practice, guest speakers from other communities were invited to speak, too.

Rakesh Sharma, an office-bearer of Amritsar’s Durgaini Temple Parbandhak Committee, could not hide his amazement at the gathering. “This is the first time that I am seeing this face of the Muslim community. It should be widely advertised,” said Sharma, before announcing that he would be happy to receive all delegates at the temple.

Shiraz Ahmed, the community’s Secretary of Education, who moved to Qadian from Chennai 10 years ago, told The Indian Express: “Something like the Islamic State or any other terrorist group will be repulsive to the Ahmadiyya Muslim. They just won’t be attracted to that kind of ideology. Our focus from childhood is on education and setting targets for joining public service, such as IAS and IFS, the military or academia. Whatever knowledge we gain, we focus on serving the nation.”

For Shamim Ahmed from Karachi, this was his first trip to Qadian. “In Pakistan, people say things to provoke us, they use language that I cannot repeat. But I’ve told my wife not to be provoked. When we turn in for the night, we keep our faith in Allah that we will wake up alive,” he said.

Earlier this month, a shopping plaza in Lahore reportedly put up a notice banning Ahmadiyyas. When the police forced them to take it down, the shopkeepers protested.

Not surprisingly, security in Qadian is tight, with heavy police cover and personnel screening and frisking everyone entering the venue. Even the community graveyard in which the founder lies buried is protected by high, brown walls topped by razor wire.

Ahmed and other members of the Pakistani delegation say they came to know about the Friday meeting in Lahore between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif only through former state Congress chief and Qadian native Partap Singh Bajwa’s speech here.

“Did we ever think that Narendra Modi would go to Lahore? Modi and BJP have understood that we need to open the borders for the region to prosper. Our fight is not against each other, but against poverty,” said Bajwa.

“It’s a good thing because our community has always encouraged peace between India and Pakistan,” said Mohammed Afzal, a retired headmaster from Rawalpindi. And then, he repeated the Ahmadiyya motto: “Love all, hate none.”

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