Pakistani authorities say a member of the country’s Ahmadi minority has been killed in a shooting in eastern province of Punjab.
A 16-year-old Muslim youth opened fire on a group of Ahmadis who had gathered on November 20 for worship at a home in the district of Sangla Hill, police said.
The attacker was later apprehended by police, which quoted the teenager as saying he had opened fire because members of the Ahmadi faith were insulting Islam.
The slain main, Tahir Ahmad, 31, was a homeopathic doctor. Three other Ahmadi men were wounded in the shooting, including the doctor's father, whose condition was described as critical.
Saleem Uddin, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Ahmadi minority, condemned the attack and said the members of the community were targeted because of their faith.
The Ahmadis have failed to get adequate protection from Prime Minister Imran Khan's government amid a surge in attacks in recent years, he said.
The Ahmadi faith was established on the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, whose followers believe he was a prophet.
Pakistan’s parliament declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. Since then, Ahmadis have repeatedly been targeted by Islamic extremists in the Muslim majority nation in attacks that have been condemned by human rights groups.
Attacks on Ahmadis have increased in Pakistan in recent months.
In October, an Ahmadi professor was shot dead in the northwestern city of Peshawar. In July, an American national, Tahir Nadeem, was shot dead by a young boy inside a court while in August, a trader, Meraj Ahmad, was targeted in the same city.
