December 22 – 28, 2014

December 22: Trader shot dead in Karachi sectarian attack

A trader was killed and two others left wounded in a target-killing attack in Karachi. The victims, Syed Aun Naqvi, Syed Mutahir Jafferi and Saleem Hussain, were sitting at a shop when armed motorcyclists opened fire on them and fled. All three were Shia Muslims, and a local Shia body confirmed that the attack was sectarian in nature. Dawn

December 27: Ahmadi leader killed in Gujranwala

A 27-year-old leader of the Jamaat-i-Ahmadiyya (JA) was killed in Gujranwala, becoming the eleventh Ahmadi Muslim to be murdered in Pakistan in 2014. Luqman Ahmad Shahzad was on the way to his farm from his residence when he was gunned down by unknown attackers. Shahzad had converted to the Ahmadi sect a few years ago and had faced pressure from his family for doing so. However, members of civil society have also blamed a TV program aired a few days before the attack where a popular cleric denounced Ahmadi Muslims and one of his guests called them Pakistan’s number one enemy. Express Tribune