aseer Ahmed, 60, who had belonged to an Ahmadi community, was stabbed to death by a young man in Chiniot on August 12.

The deceased was standing at a bus stop, located just outside Chenab Nagar, the only Ahmadi-majority town in Pakistan also known as Rabwah. More than 90 percent population of the town consists of members of the Ahmadi community.

Ahmed, in his sixties, aiming to visit a local market, was waiting for the bus when Shahzad Hassan, in his mid 20s, approached him and asked Ahmed whether he was from the Ahmadi community. After hearing an affirmative answer, Hassan asked Ahmed to renounce his faith and convert. When Ahmed refused, Hassan started chanting some religious slogans. He also took out a knife from his bag and stabbed Ahmed several times. Ahmad died on the spot. Hassan was first overpowered by bystanders and then taken into custody by the police.

Police said the assailant had confessed before a local magistrate and had been sent to jail. A video was later circulated on social media showing him wearing a shalwar kamees with blood stains and shouting slogans.

Hassan is a resident of Sillanwali town in Sargodha district. He is said to have graduated from from a adrassa in the Muhammadwala police area. The village he comes from is more than 30 kilometers from Rabwah.

Separately, students aged between 10 and 15 years, were recently reported as being lectured on the blasphemy issue in a seminary in the federal capital and chanting slogans associated with a religious party

Police and family said Ahmed had originally hailed from Sialkot district. He had migrated to Rabwah with his family a decade ago. For the past few years he had been doing volunteer work for the Jamaat-i-Ahmadiyya,

A few months back, a young man had murdered another Ahmadiyya community member in the same style. Abdul Salam was on his way back home when a seminary student, Hafiz Ali Raza alias Mulazim Husain, attacked him with a knife. There have also been reports of desecration of Ahmadiyya community members’s graves.

A few weeks ago, a leader of a ruling political party who hails from Khushab district Khushab had dispatched a letter to the deputy commissioner urging him to take away security from the Ahmadi residents of the region and expel them from the area.

Human rights groups have been calling on the governments to ensure protection of religious minorities and safeguard their rights including religious freedom and right to live with dignity.

The writer is a staff reporter. He can be reached at  vaqargillani@gmail.com. He tweets at @waqargillani