A woman and her granddaughters were killed by a Pakistani mob in late July after one member of her sect was accused of posting sacrilegious material on Facebook.

The victims were Ahmadis, a religious sect that considers itself Muslim but believes in a prophet after Mohammed. According to police officials, before the tragic murders took place, an altercation started in the town of Gujranwala where an Ahmadi man was accused by another non-Ahmadi man of posting “objectionable material” online.

“Later, a crowd of 150 people came to the police station demanding the registration of a blasphemy case against the accused. As police were negotiating with the crowd, another mob attacked and started burning the houses of Ahmadis,” said a police officer who declined to be identified.

60-year-old Munawar Ahmed, said “The attackers were looting and plundering, taking away fans and whatever valuables they could get hold of and dragging furniture into the road and setting fire to it.... Some were continuously firing into the air. A lot of policemen arrived but they stayed on the sidelines and didn't intervene.”

Salim ud Din, who serves as one of the spokespersons for the Ahmadi community, referred to this as the worst attack on the minority community since consecutive assaults near Ahmadi localities in Pakistan killed 86 people four years ago. Reportedly, the youths who were in fact responsible for posting the objectionable material online were not injured in the attacks.

In 1984, a law in Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslims and many Pakistanis perceive them as heretics today. Under Pakistani law, the community is banned from saying Muslim prayers, using Muslim greetings and visiting mosques. Instances of blasphemy seem to be skyrocketing in Pakistan with one case being reported in 2011 but at least 68 such cases being reported in 2013. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has said approximately 100 people have been accused of blasphemy so far in 2014.

Photo Credits: Wikimedia