The Riots of 1953 — Page 14
14 16. These misrepresentations and vilifications came to be broadcast with impunity from the stage, the pulpit and the press. The Government did not move in the matter. Even the fact that their Foreign Minister was being maligned did not induce them to do their obvious duty. Complete boycott 27 of the Ahmadis was openly preached and other Muslims were instigated to kill them. This campaign of vilification and incitement resulted in the death of several Ahmadis in different parts of the country. Put in their chronological order the first victim of this communal frenzy was Dr. Major Mahmud , who was murdered on the 20th of August 1948 at Quetta , 28 when he was passing near a public meeting, which was being addressed by the local Maulvis at Quetta. In the Punjab the first victim of this incitement was an Ahmadi young man, Ghulam Mohammad 29 who was murdered near Okara (Montgomery) on the 4th of October 1930. His murder was followed by that of another Ahmadi, Ch. Badr Din, at Rawalpindi on the 10th of October, 1950. The murderer in the Okara case confessed that he was led to kill Ghulam Mohammad as he was an Ahmadi. In the Rawalpindi case the police tried to suppress real facts and attempted to show that it was the result of a private feud. When questioned about it the authorities at Rawalpindi said that it was in the interests of the Ahmadis themselves that these facts should not appear in their true colour. On the 13th of May 1951 the Ahmadiyya mosque in Samundri (Lyallpur) was set on fire. The Provincial Government kn e w all that was happening but unfortunately did not move to curb the unlawful activities of this group. The Community felt what way the wind 27 Beybak Sargodha 1. 4. 52. 28 Inqilab, 29. 8. 48. 29 Crim. Appeal 365 of 1951, Decision on 17. 3. 52.