In Baghbanpura, in the urban area of Gujranwala, Punjab, the Ahmadis covered decorative minarets with an iron sheet to make them invisible. It was not enough.
by Massimo Introvigne
![Before and after. The door of the Baghbanpura Ahmadi mosque with its minarets before the destruction, and after the police intervened on December 8. From Twitter.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/door-of-the-Baghbanpura-Ahmadi-mosque.jpeg)
![Before and after. The door of the Baghbanpura Ahmadi mosque with its minarets before the destruction, and after the police intervened on December 8. From Twitter.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/door-of-the-Baghbanpura-Ahmadi-mosque.jpeg)
There is no peace in Pakistan for the Ahmadis, members of a religious community regarded as heretic by Sunni Muslims. The Ahmadis venerate their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who died in Lahore in 1908, as “both a follower of the Holy Prophet (Muhammad) and a prophet himself.” For conservative Muslims, this is enough to violate the principle of the “finality of prophethood,” according to which there can be no genuine prophet in human history after Muhammad.
The Ahmadis are thus regarded as “non-Muslims.” There are laws in Pakistan prohibiting them from calling themselves Muslims, and from using Islamic symbols. The provision about the symbols, however, is interpreted differently and sometimes capriciously by different local authorities.
In Baghbanpura, in the urban area of Gujranwala, a city in Punjab, in mid-2022 Ahmadi believers were told by the police that Sunni Muslims were complaining that minarets decorating the door of the local Ahmadi mosque were “Islamic symbols” and should be removed. The Ahmadis agreed to cover the minarets with an iron sheet, making them invisible.
![Ahmadis covering the minarets to make them invisible. From Twitter.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Ahmadis-covering-the-minarets.jpeg)
![Ahmadis covering the minarets to make them invisible. From Twitter.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Ahmadis-covering-the-minarets.jpeg)
However, on December 8, 2022, in the early hours of the morning, the police blocked the street, raided the mosque, and destroyed the minarets.
![The raid: police excavators in action and the result of their work.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/police-excavators-in-action.jpeg)
![The raid: police excavators in action and the result of their work.](https://bitterwinter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/police-excavators-in-action.jpeg)
Sometimes, in Pakistan, Ahmadi places of worship are vandalized by thugs. Sometimes, it is the police itself.