On 16 May, after Friday prayers, Dr Sheikh Mahmood Ahmed — a UK-educated consultant gastroenterologist — was shot dead while attending to patients in a hospital in Sargodha. The gunman, a supporter of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), walked in and executed him at close range. His crime: being an Ahmadi.
This was not an isolated incident. It was the predictable result of a system that criminalises Ahmadi identity, dehumanises their existence, and allows extremist groups like TLP to operate with impunity. The state’s legal and political architecture enables this violence. The killer pulled the trigger, but it was decades of state-backed hate that loaded the gun.
TLP is not a fringe group, nor is it a religious authority. It is a militant threat that thrives on bloodlust, public hysteria, and the moral collapse of our institutions. As long as it is tolerated, funded, or negotiated with, more citizens will die; not for what they’ve done, but for what they believe.Â
Dr Ahmed was not a victim of random hatred, and his murder must not be reduced to another press release. Jarida Today condemns not just this killing, but the conditions that made it inevitable. It must be recognised for what it is: a political assassination made possible by national complicity. He was targeted with the full weight of a country’s sanctioned bigotry behind the trigger. It is time to stop pretending otherwise.