Published on May 29 2010 by Arif Khan - London

Dear Sir,

As a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, with family in Lahore, the attacks of the two Mosques on Friday were very close to home, despite being thousands of miles away.

I wanted to emphasise again that this was not a random attack. This attack was specifically targetted at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, to which I belong. This is the most horiffic in a series of attacks against the Ahmadis in Pakistan, and in other countries such as Indonesia

Many times I have volunteered for security duty at the Baitul Futuh mosque in Morden, South West London which belongs to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. For those of us lucky enough to live in London - 'security duty' involves directing traffic, at worst there may be a racial or religous taunt thrown from a passing car. For my fellow brothers in Lahore however, those on duty were confronted with armed gunmen. Reports say the first fatalaties were of those on duty at the front of the mosque.

These draconian laws not only prevent members of the Community from the most basic rights, such as calling themselves Muslims and calling their places of worship Mosques, but infringements of this injunction are a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment and under the blasphemy law, even punishable by death. Many other minority religious groups have also as a result f this legislation in Pakistan.

Friday 28th May will always be a dark day in the history of the Ahmadiyya Community. I hope and pray that out of this most terrible act, arises increased awareness of the plight of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan and increased international pressure on the Government to repeal the laws which facilitate and condone such attacks against us.

Yours faithfully

Arif Khan

Raynes Park, London