Pakistan arrests radical Islamist leader for placing bounty on chief justice

ISLAMABAD — Police in central Pakistan on Monday arrested a leader of a far-right Islamist party on charges of ordering the assassination of the country’s top judge over his alleged support for minority Ahmadis. 

Zaheerul Hassan Shah, deputy chief of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, or TLP, was taken into custody under the anti-terrorism law in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, according to an official police complaint. 

The arrest came a day after Shah was seen in a viral video on social media announcing to a crowd of TLP supporters that he would personally give 10 million rupees ($36,000) to anyone who beheads Supreme Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Esa.  

The radical leader delivered the speech in the provincial capital of Lahore, accusing the 65-year-old top judge of “desecrating the law of the country.”  

The rally was one of a series of public gatherings organized by TLP in recent days in parts of Pakistan to condemn Esa for granting bail to a member of the minority Ahmadi community, who was accused of posting material against Islam on social media.   

Hours before Shah's arrest, the federal defense minister told reporters in the national capital, Islamabad, that the government would sternly deal with those making false allegations against the chief justice and issuing death threats in the name of the Islamic religion. 

“No group can incite violence in the name of faith or politics. We will use the full force of the law to bring them to justice,” Khawaja Asif said. “The state will not allow you to issue a fatwa [decree] to kill someone,” he added.  

TLP leaders routinely use offensive anti-Ahmadi language in public rallies and gatherings, inciting followers to attack members of the minority community and their places of worship in the country. 

Ahmadis are followers of the Ahmadiyya community, a contemporary messianic movement founded in 1889 who profess to be Muslims. 

Pakistan’s constitution declared Ahmadis non-Muslim in 1974 and subsequently prohibited them from acting or representing themselves as Muslims. They are also barred under the law from publicly propagating their faith and building places of worship. 

The constitutional restrictions are primarily blamed for the spike in deadly attacks and hatred against Ahmadis in the years that followed.  

Last week, a United Nations panel of independent experts said in a joint statement they “are alarmed by ongoing reports of violence and discrimination against Ahmadis” and urged Pakistani authorities to take immediate action to address the situation.  

“Urgent measures are necessary to respond to these violent attacks and the broader atmosphere of hatred and discrimination which feeds it,” the panel, reporting to the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, stated Thursday.