• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / From the World / News Global

Jahid Hasan: An Ahmadi Young Man Clobbered to Death in Bangladesh

03/08/2023Marco Respinti |

A three-night attack by Muslim fanatics happened in daylight and in front of the police. It was not the first time, and may not be the last.

by Marco Respinti

The assassinated young man, Jahid Hasan. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Committee.
The assassinated young man, Jahid Hasan. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Committee.

On March 3, 2023, Jahid Hasan, a young man, reportedly around 25 years of age, was
clobbered to death in Northern Bangladesh. Hasan was an Ahmadi Muslim, and the day of his murder marked the inauguration of the 98th annual convention of Bangladeshi Ahmadi Muslims in the city of Ahmednagar, Panchagarh district, Rangpur division, Bangladesh (not to be confused with the city of Ahmednagar, Ahmednagar district, state of Maharashtra, Western India).

The young Ahmadi was trying to protect the convention grounds from the aggression of a large group of thugs, and his assassination took place amid a three-night attack. As a result of these incidents, four other Ahmadis were hospitalized in serious conditions, and more than 100 suffered lesser injuries. The Ahmadiyya Mosque of Darul Wahid Mohalla neighborhood and the Ahmadiyya Medical Clinic & Lab were set ablaze. 189 houses and 50 shops belonging to Ahmadi Muslims were looted or set on fire. Alarmingly, all took place in full daylight and under the eyes of the police.

The detailed news of this extended violence and killing was broadcasted by the International Human Rights Committee (IHRC), a non-profit and non-governmental organization focusing on freedom of religion or belief based in London. “Bitter Winter” asked the IHRC to supply further elements to identify the aggressors. The IHRC confirmed (first directly to “Bitter Winter,” then in a second press release) that the violent mob, which stormed the Ahmadi convention, was incited by the preaching of extremist Sunni Muslim clerics, who consider the Ahmadis as heretics.

From sources it describes as reliable, the IHRC also received rumors of probable new imminent attacks against the Ahmadiyya Centers of Nasirabad, Kafuria, Islam Ganj and Borchor in Bangladesh. They may be expected on Friday 10, 2023. One shall presume that this same news is also known to the local police and political authorities, and they will take all possible measures to prevent another tragedy.

This is in fact an unacceptable episode of persecution against believers, motivated by intolerance and hatred, which no religious doctrine can allow and no theological dispute should justify.

Private houses and shops and a mosque were destroyed. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Committee.
Private houses and shops and a mosque were destroyed. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Committee.

As it is known, some schools of Islamic thought consider the Ahmadis as non-Muslim heretics. Pakistan officially adopts this view. The situation of the Ahmadis there became unbearable in the first half of the 1980s, compelling many to leave or suffer harsh discrimination and open persecution. The leader of the community, His Holiness Sahibzada Mirza Ahmad Masroor Sahib, the 5th caliph, lives today in London, UK.

That of Pakistan is a case of an unbearable intromission of a state into religious affairs, which creates discrimination and persecution against the Ahmadis. And while the government of Pakistan discriminates the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in several forms, gangs of violent people feel somewhat encouraged to openly attack them in the streets, beat them, and even kill them, often in front of police officers who do not intervene.

In this respect, Bangladesh is not comparable to Pakistan. There is no state law discriminating Ahmadi Muslims or declaring them non-Muslims. But there are fanatics who would like to replicate the situation of Pakistan, whose Islamic fundamentalists are a source of inspiration for their Bangladeshi counterparts.

Further images of destruction in Bangladesh. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Committee.
Further images of destruction in Bangladesh. Courtesy of the International Human Rights Committee.

Pakistan (with a majority of Sunni Muslims) was born out of the 1947 Partition of India (which kept a majority of Hindus) along a religious line. The Indian region of Bengal, in the east, suffered the same fate. Along a similar religious line, the western part of Bengal, where Hindus were (and are) the majority, remained to India, while the eastern part, where Sunni Muslims were (and are) the majority, became part of Pakistan. Called first East Bengal and soon after East Pakistan (with no geographical continuity with the Western part of Pakistan), the province was little by little drawn into political, linguistic, ethnic, and religious controversies that in 1971 burst out into a bloody civil war, which soon escalated into a genocide that ended, after an Indian intervention, with the independence of Bangladesh.

The story of the genocide was told in a series of articles of Bitter Winter. But it is important to note that religious fanaticism and violence in Bangladesh unfortunately did not end with the war.

Tagged With: Ahmadis, Bangladesh

Marco Respinti
Marco Respinti

Marco Respinti is an Italian professional journalist, member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), essayist, translator, and lecturer. He has contributed and contributes to several journals and magazines both in print and online, both in Italy and abroad. Author of books and chapter in books, he has translated and/or edited works by, among others, Edmund Burke, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Russell Kirk, J.R.R. Tolkien, Régine Pernoud and Gustave Thibon. A Senior fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal (a non-partisan, non-profit U.S. educational organization based in Mecosta, Michigan), he is also a founding member as well as a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for European Renewal (a non-profit, non-partisan pan-European educational organization based in The Hague, The Netherlands). A member of the Advisory Council of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief, in December 2022, the Universal Peace Federation bestowed on him, among others, the title of Ambassador of Peace. From February 2018 to December 2022, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of International Family News. He serves as Director-in-Charge of the academic publication The Journal of CESNUR and Bitter Winter: A Magazine on Religious Liberty and Human Rights.

Related articles

  • Ahmadis Defend Human Rights—Not for Themselves Only

    Ahmadis Defend Human Rights—Not for Themselves Only

  • Pakistan, Imam Threatens to Break the Legs of an Ahmadi School Headmaster

    Pakistan, Imam Threatens to Break the Legs of an Ahmadi School Headmaster

  • Pakistan: To Join Bar, Ahmadi Lawyers Are Asked to Deny Their Faith

    Pakistan: To Join Bar, Ahmadi Lawyers Are Asked to Deny Their Faith

  • Pakistan: A Beaconhouse School Expels Children for Being Ahmadis

    Pakistan: A Beaconhouse School Expels Children for Being Ahmadis

Keep Reading

  • “Ahmadis Are the Worst Kāfir”: Terror in Pakistan via WhatsApp
    “Ahmadis Are the Worst Kāfir”: Terror in Pakistan via WhatsApp

    Anti-Ahmadi attacks continue to be promoted in new and creative ways. The government ignores them and their dangers.

  • Ahmadi Graves Desecrated in Pakistan—Again
    Ahmadi Graves Desecrated in Pakistan—Again

    Dead or alive, members of the religious minority continue to be persecuted.

  • Pakistan: Radical Cleric Calls to Attack Ahmadi Pregnant Women
    Pakistan: Radical Cleric Calls to Attack Ahmadi Pregnant Women

    A leader of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan asked his followers to “make sure that no new Ahmadis are born.”

  • Pakistan, USCIRF: “Religious Liberty from Bad to Worse”
    Pakistan, USCIRF: “Religious Liberty from Bad to Worse”

    The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom denounces the “dire condition” of religious minorities.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Sinicization of Christianity Comes to Hong Kong by Gladys Kwok
  • Is Netflix a Threat to Religious Liberty? by Massimo Introvigne
  • Trial for the Dissolution of the FECRIS: The Anti-Cultists Lose the First Round by Massimo Introvigne
  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • Falun Gong: Xu Na’s 8-Year Sentence Confirmed On Appeal by Yang Feng
  • China: Theological Seminaries Inspected to Check How “Sinicized” They Are by Zhang Chunhua
  • Yang Taoming: “China’s Tony Robbins” Detained by Zhao Zhangyong

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY