Section 298

Transcript

00:00:15,960 [TRAFFIC NOISE]

00:00:22,879 [OMINOUS MUSIC] [TRAFFIC NOISE]

00:00:30,600 [GUN SHOTS FIRED]

00:00:34,840 [NEWS REPORT] The strikes against the mosques packed with hundreds of worshippers

00:00:38,520 [GUN SHOTS FIRED] constituted the worst attack ever against the minority Ahmadiyya sect.

00:00:48,597 [NEWS REPORT] With the militant Sunni Taliban and Al-Qaeda movements spreading, so far, it appears, the long standing threat to minorities in the mostly Muslim country, will only grow.

00:00:59,280 [ADHAN IS RECITED]

1’52 Title: Section 298

00:01:53,560 [MELANCHOLY FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

00:02:40,680 Mother: Today marks one year since Tahir's martyrdom. He was martyred on 20 of November. Time has gone by so fast… I remember him all the time. Since my childhood, I have learned to remain patient under any circumstances. There were many hardships, whether at home or at school – there were hardships. I tried my best to keep my children safe. By the grace of God, two of my children were able to leave this country. But as for my elder son... It was God’s decree and this is what He willed.

00:03:31,919 [DISTANT ADHAN HEARD ACROSS THE CITY]

00:03:42,120 [TRAFFIC NOISES]

00:04:04,039 [DISTANT ADHAN]

00:04:21,639 Father: The bullet is still inside my head. One bullet got me here and the other hit my hand. It pierced straight through and came out the other side cutting the muscle here. My finger can’t move now it has become disabled. When I got shot in the head, I instantly lost consciousness. I fell face down and swallowed my own blood when gasping for air. No one even bothered to turn me over. I regained consciousness in the hospital. I didn't know then that Tahir had passed away but I knew that I ran after him and tried to warn my son. That's all I can remember.

00:05:15,720 [INSTRUMENTAL PAKISTANI MUSIC PLAYING]

00:05:25,240 [KIDS LAUGHING AND TALKING]

00:05:34,120 [TEACHER] 'Revise pages 36, 37 and 38...'

00:05:40,279 [CLASSROOM CHATTER]

00:05:51,519 Teacher: There is quite a lot of hate material against us in the textbooks, which are being taught to the students by the teachers. And the teachers don't just teach it, they try and instigate emotional reactions in the students who then bully us. And it brings out the psychological trauma amongst Ahmadi students. I had to deal with several cases as well, being a psychologist. There were some students who were coming in and they were suffering from major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder because they were so scared to go back to the university. They would feel that non-Ahmadis would kill them, they would make some legal case against them. And I myself was receiving threatening calls and abusive language and hate speech wherever I was going. When I had taken admission in university, my fellow classmates would exhibit hate materials and hate speech on social media against us and my community. The teachers were performing discriminatory behaviour when it came to grading the marks. We tried to report it to the administration but they didn't listen to us and then we had also received threatening calls. And while I was in the university, I had an accident there, but I did not receive any medical aid and they were not even letting anyone else come from outside of the university to help us get to the hospital.

00:07:21,600 [INSTRUMENTAL PAKISTANI MUSIC PLAYING]

00:07:32,680 Teacher: They are not learning about their our own culture because we are not allowed to teach them that in the schools. Religion is compulsory, but the government is against us having any (Ahmadiyya) religious material present in the schools. They come and even check sometimes, unannounced, so that they know that we are not teaching them any teachings regarding the Ahmadiyya community. Our literature is not even allowed to be published. So, it's like a full stop.

00:07:57,199 [KIDS CHATTER]

00:08:00,560 [LOUD TRAFFIC NOISES] [INSTRUMENTAL PAKISTANI MUSIC PLAYING]

00:08:11,839 [INSTRUMENTAL PAKISTANI MUSIC PLAYING]

00:08:24,279 [HOSPITAL ANNOUNCEMENTS HEARD]

00:08:33,600 Doctor: When I was a medical student and was in the second year of Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, I was in Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, there was a movement against the Ahmadi students. It came in the newspaper, it was a famous news all around the world: '23 Ahmadi students were expelled from Punjab Medical College.' They were yelling at us: 'These are Kafirs, Ahmadis are Kafirs and they are downtrodden people and we don't want to live with them.' It was a mass movement. Teachers were involved, students were involved, even the college administration was involved. So we tried to save ourselves, we ran back to the hostel. If we had not gone back, we thought that somebody would harm us. There were life threats written on the walls of our rooms, outside the rooms, like: 'We will kill you.' We had to go to the police station. They filed a report against us. We had to give clarifications there about how much we are involved, like... what we had done. We said that we hadn't done anything, but still we didn't know what sort of blames they were placing against us... Like they were saying that these students are preaching other students; these students are performing Tauheen e Risalat. Tauheen e Risalat is like giving verdicts against prophethood. Why would we? We also believe in the Holy Prophet. We believe in God. We believe in Holy Prophet. How can we give verdicts against that?

00:10:15,639 [TRAFFIC NOISES] [HOSPITAL ANNOUNCEMENTS HEARD]

00:10:20,159 Doctor: Gradually, they migrated us to different other colleges and throughout the other three years, people persecuted us because there were blasphemy blames against us. And I didn't make any non-Ahmadi friends, because they were also threatened because of us. They were thinking that since I had migrated from Punjab Medical College, I had done something big. They thought that I was a criminal and they treated me as such.

00:10:55,440 [BALOCHI FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

00:11:00,519 [LOUD TRAFFIC NOISES] [BALOCHI FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

00:11:12,200 [BALOCHI FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

00:11:24,346 Mother: It is difficult when we go to the market as we fear being recognized. People wouldn’t allow us to use buses and public transport. Men could use bicycles but it was very difficult for myself and my children.

00:11:42,840 [TRAFFIC NOISES]

00:11:46,694 Father: On the school van, they wouldn’t allow our children to sit on the seats. They would say: 'Because you are 'Mirzai', you are Ahmadi, sit on the floor!' It has been about twenty years since I have walked from my home to our store which is about half a mile away. I can’t walk, because people start hooting and being disrespectful. I leave my house, take my motorcycle put my helmet on, and go straight to my store. And when it’s time to leave, I do the same thing and go straight home.

00:12:21,679 [BALOCHI FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

00:12:33,080 [QUIET HOSPITAL CHATTER]

00:12:36,799 Doctors: They think that it's usual that they can kill us and they think it's a reward - killing Ahmadi people because they can say that: 'The government has blamed you and then considers you as non-Muslims so who are you to call yourselves Muslims?'

00:12:55,216 Father: If you look at their gatherings, you see that they are not saying anything pertaining to Allah and Prophet Muhammad or the faith. Instead, they speak about who is Ahmadi, a 'Mirzai' and who should be seized. 'Seize the Wahabis, seize the Christians and burn them alive!'

00:13:13,879 [INSTRUMENTAL PAKISTANI MUSIC PLAYING]

00:13:18,399 Doctor: Even in Rabwah now, people are creating problems for us. Non-Ahmadi patients are coming, they are creating false cases against us doctors. You have to be very cautious in every, every step you take. We cannot say 'Assalamu Alaikum' to a patient. Even if we want to, we cannot.

00:13:35,240 [INSTRUMENTAL PAKISTANI MUSIC PLAYING]

00:13:49,720 Teacher: Males are usually directly involved. They're directly influenced by the persecution. Females who are not students and who are working at home, they're housewives or mothers, they are constantly worried about their family members, whether they would come back home safe or not. So it's like a constant trauma. We have to find things [to do] for ourselves to stay sane. Some of them go out and do jobs at the Ahmadi institutes in Rabwah so that they have something to do at home.

00:14:21,320 Doctor: We used to have some community gatherings for women, these are not allowed anymore. And we can't even use social media for community gatherings because it falls under cyber crime.

00:14:33,240 [INSTRUMENTAL PAKISTANI MUSIC PLAYING]

00:14:43,853 Father: Our son and daughter are in Germany. They call once or twice a day and we speak to them on WhatsApp. Now there are certain cyber laws under which we can’t send any sort of Islamic message because even that much can lead to being prosecuted.

00:15:08,360 Mother: Until the laws change, we are not safe here. I am fearful. Even children who study in Rabwah are not going to remain here after all,  and if they can’t go elsewhere then where will they work and earn a living? Not a single Ahmadi is safe here.

00:15:31,559 [CRYING]

00:15:33,720 [MELANCHOLY FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

00:15:48,519 Mother: How many plans we had made... He spent so much time with me that he was my best friend.

00:16:01,162 Father: Our son was also our friend. Life has become very difficult without him. But Allah the Almighty is granting us the patience to deal with this pain.

00:16:13,872 Mother: My child... He always kept smiling.

00:16:21,360 [WOMAN CRYING]

00:16:26,858 Mother: Tahir, your sacrifice will not be wasted.

00:16:32,159 [WOMAN SIGHS]

00:16:35,519 [MELANCHOLY FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

00:16:39,960 Doctor: I would express that it's a suffocating environment that people are creating. Gradually it's increasing, it's not reducing. Since the time I was in medical school, things have been getting worse.

00:16:55,600 [MELANCHOLY FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]

00:17:04,879 Teacher: We hope that we will have the right to present a counter-narrative so that people would understand us better and they would understand that this does not need to go on.

00:17:15,382 Mother: There are Ahmadis, non-Ahmadis and people of different religions all over the world. Should everyone start abandoning their faith for the sake of others? This doesn't make any sense. There must be laws in place.

00:17:28,720 Teacher: If we stay here and fight for our cause, one day, the rest of the members of our country will understand that we do not mean any harm to them. We only mean to help them and help this country achieve a greater success... If they just included us in society.

00:17:48,000 [MELANCHOLY FLUTE MUSIC PLAYING]