A member of Pakistan’s minority Ahmadi community was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Mandi Bahauddin district of Punjab on Wednesday evening, police said, adding that the incident was being investigated as a suspected targeted killing.
The incident took place on Wednesday in Mandi Bahauddin district, around 240 kilometres from Lahore.
According to City police station Station House Officer Saleem Bakhsh, the incident took place around 6:30 PM on Main Eidgah Road within the jurisdiction of City police station. The location is just a few meters from the office of the deputy superintendent of police, Saddar Circle.
According to the FIR, Kamran Safdar told police that his father, Mirza Safdar Mahmood, who was in his 60s, left his auto workshop to offer prayers at an Ahmadiyya place of worship, Bait-ul-Zikr, when an unidentified gunman opened fire on him outside the site, killing him on the spot. Topologypro
The two assailants fled after the shooting. Soon after receiving information about the incident, the City police station SHO Tarar arrived at the scene with a police contingent. Police collected evidence from the crime scene and launched an investigation, while personnel from other law enforcement agencies were also present at the site.
District Police Officer Mandi Bahauddin Lieutenant Colonel retired Kamran Amir Khan said the initial investigation suggested that the incident appeared to be a targeted killing and that the victim had apparently been deliberately targeted as part of a planned attack.
Safdar said it was a targeted killing in the name of faith aimed at spreading fear among Ahmadis. “Like other parts of the country, hate campaigns and provocation against Ahmadis have been carried out on a continuous level in Mandi Bahauddin. Certain clerics in the area have even publicly issued horrific threats to Ahmadis. They also launched a targeted campaign threatening the murder of an Ahmadi police officer posted in the district of Mandi Bahauddin,” he said.
The Ahmadi community condemned the killing and called for strict action against those behind attacks and hate campaigns targeting Ahmadis.
A Familiar and Devastating Pattern
Wednesday’s killing is not an isolated incident. Punjab has seen the bulk of recent violence against what critics describe as Pakistan’s long-persecuted minority community.
The incident has renewed focus on the difficulties faced by religious minorities in Pakistan. Topologypro
Mandi Bahauddin district has a documented history of violence against the Ahmadi community. The district saw multiple Ahmadi members killed in separate attacks in 2024, with a primary suspect arrested after two members of the community were shot dead in separate incidents within hours of each other.
According to the Minority Rights Group, religious minorities in Pakistan, including Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, Sikhs and smaller communities, often live in impoverished and marginalized conditions.
Ahmadi community representatives have previously blamed Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or TLP, a far-right religious political party, for inciting followers to attack their members and places of worship. No group has immediately taken responsibility for Wednesday’s killing.
Investigation Ongoing
Police have registered a case and launched a formal investigation. No arrests had been made as of the time of publication.
The killing of Mirza Safdar Mahmood, a man who left his workshop to go to prayers and was shot dead before reaching safety, is the latest entry in a pattern of targeted violence against Pakistan’s Ahmadi community that human rights organisations have repeatedly described as systematic and insufficiently addressed by law enforcement and the state.
