Sect mourns loved ones lost in attack (From Oxford Mail)

Sect mourns loved ones lost in attack

6:40pm Sunday 30th May 2010 in Oxford

MEMBERS of an Islamic sect in Oxford are in mourning after discovering friends and family members were among those killed in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Pakistan.

The shootings and bombings at Darul Zikr and Garhi Shahu mosques in Lahore are understood to have been a direct attack on members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a persecuted minority sect denounced by some hardline muslims as heretics.

There are about 120 members of the Oxford Ahmadiyya Muslim Association.

Many of them are coming to terms with the fact loved ones had been shot and killed.

Faez Ahmed, who has lived in Cowley for 10 years and has three children at Oxford schools, said: “My paternal uncle, Ilyas Ahmad Aslam, was slaughtered in the mosque.

“There was another family just round the corner from us who had family members killed.

“Another gentleman heard his brother got shot in the leg.

“The whole community is completely devastated. We are in mourning.”

Mr Ahmed, 42, said he heard on Friday, when the attacks took place, that his uncle had been trapped in the Darul Zikr mosque.

He said: “We were all panicking about what was going to happen, then the news came that he had been shot.

“We have been hearing some horrific stories about small children being shot in the head.

“We cannot believe something like that could happen.”

Mr Ahmed said it was too dangerous for him to return to Pakistan, so he would be grieving at home in Oxford.

He said: “These terrorists or fundamentalists have said this is the last warning for Ahmadis, leave this country or we will kill all of you, which is a fairly stark warning. The law there states Ahmadis cannot even use any Muslim greetings and are branded as non-Muslims, which is very difficult.”

Special prayers were said at the group’s meeting place in Cowley Road on Saturday for those affected by the attacks, which are thought to have resulted in more than 100 deaths.

Dr Munawar Ahmed, president of the Oxford Ahmadiyya Muslim Association, said: “The community is in shock.”

Many leaders of the Ahmadi community have been based in the UK since fleeing Pakistan in the 1980s.