They spent 85 years together, struggling for a better life for their rancorous community. There’s was an unusual and difficult life – a life that no other citizens of Pakistan were living.
The way they opted for themselves was not an easy one as it was an addition to many other hardships they were already braving; they had to go behind the bars together and face the persecution not only from people but also state itself. This is what defined their life. They witnessed riots of 1953, they saw the move which led the parliament to declare them as non-Muslims in 1974; promulgation of Ordinance XX in 1984 barring them from posing like Muslims; provision of oath to denounce their leadership to avail democratic and citizenship rights; apart from sporadic target killings of their community members, killings of more than 90 of their community members in two barbaric terrorist attacks on their places of worship in Lahore in one go on May 28, 2010; and in addition to many discriminations imposed by the state and society of main stream Muslims, constitutional shutting doors of democracy on them in 2017 after the protest of religious bigots in the name of protecting finality of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him). It is justified to say that Pakistan is the country where Ahmadis are spending hardest lives than in any other part of the world.
Being highly educated, Khurshid and Ahmed played an active role throughout these circumstances in a bid to make life easy for their marginalised community. They taught their community to bear all discriminations and hardships stoically without resorting violence.
At the end, both of them breathed their last with a short span of three weeks — Mirza Khurshid Ahmed on 17 January and Mirza Ghulam Ahmed on February 05 this year. Mirza Khurshid was heading his community in Pakistan since May 8, 2003, and Mirza Ahmed was elevated as his community head after Khurshid’s death.
Both of them were highly qualified even the younger Mirza had passed competitive exams of Punjab Public Service Commission but did not join the service.
Mirza Khurshid Ahmed, born on 12 Sep 1932 in Lahore, passed his matriculation from High School Qadian and done his masters in English from Government College, Lahore. He taught English language at TI College for 17 years. After being selected for a fellowship, he participated in one-year English phonetic course in Leads University London in 1964. He is said to be a very good teacher of English and his services could have been utilised for society in general had they not been religiously excluded. He was also a teacher of present head of Jamat-e-Ahmadia.
As part of suffering for his community, Mirza Khurshid himself led funeral prayers of all those deceased on May 28 incidents who were buried in Chenab Nagar. He married on 26 December, 1955, and left 6 sons out of whom two are doctors, one is a PhD scholar, and one is an LLD. Mirza Khurshid died on January 18.
Throughout their lives, Khurshid and Ahmed urged their community to demonstrate patience on the face of persecution
Sahibzada Mirza Ghulam Ahmed, who died on February 05 at the age of 78, had done masters in Political Science from Government College, Lahore. He remained editor of monthly Review of Religions. He married in 1964 with sister of present leader of Jamaat-e-Ahmadia. He left 3 sons and 2 daughters. One of his sons in in UK and another is in USA.
Ahmed remained head of Jamaat-e-Ahmadia Pakistan for less than three weeks after death of his elder brother Mirza Khurshid.
He always stood by his brother and felt pain whenever an Ahmadi family would fall prey to religious intolerance. In 1989, he was also jailed with Khurshid for religious beliefs. As a head of the delegation, he went to Lahore from Chenab Nagar on 28 May, 2010, after attacks on two of their worship places. He also welcomed the slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer when he visited the injured people at Jinnah Hospital.
Despite the life threats, he stayed in Lahore for two weeks and led funeral prayers in Garhi Shahu worship place. On the behalf of his Jamaat, he addressed press conferences after the attacks and appeared on different TV programs to give his point of view on terrorist attacks. He made arrangements for the bereaved families to take bodies of their loved ones as ambulances were demanding huge money for the services. He visited every injured and met with every family of those who had lost their lives to terrorist attacks. He also provided food to the brereaved families.
Throughout their lives, Khurshid and Ahmed urged their community to demonstrate patience, steadfastness and hope having at the face of persecution. No doubt hearing more and more news about Ahmadis being killed across the country, both brothers continued recounting the history of violence against their community and observed the process which distorted their identity.
During the initial days of declaration that declared Ahmadis non-Muslims, both the brothers might have started to become a bit paranoid wondering if the people treating their community so inconsiderately were doing it because they don’t like Ahmadis or have strict theological disagreements with their faith. At last they must have realised that it was bit of both. These state of affairs not only had made every Ahmadi but also both brothers less afraid of the verbal diatribes therefore they simply ignore such incidents and focus on incidents posting threats to lives.
Out of this hatred, not a single newspaper published even a single column news after death of these both heads of a community having its members in about 100 countries of the world.
The writer is a journalist currently based in Canada. He can be reached at [email protected] and @RanaTanver
Published in Daily Times, February 23rd 2018.