Pakistan police arrest 8 men over apparent religious killing

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say they arrested eight men of the Ahmadi sect of Islam on Saturday who had opened fire on a group of Sunni Muslims the night prior, killing one and wounding another.

Senior officer Faisal Mukhtar said the Ahmadis shot at the Sunnis while they were chanting religious poems in the village of Bahuman, near Lahore in the eastern province of Punjab. One minor suspect was still missing.

The killing was a rare case of violence exercised by Ahmadis, who have long held a grievance against Pakistan’s majority Sunnis, who consider them heretics.

Ahmadis believe that an additional prophet named Ghulam Ahmad was sent by God in the 19th century, centuries after the Prophet Muhammad. That view is at odds with the fundamental Islamic principle that Muhammad was God’s final chosen messenger.

Pakistan amended its constitution in 1974 to specifically declare that Ahmadis are not Muslims and may not be called or call themselves that. It also barred them from preaching.