Atif Rashid, MTA News
Faith in Chains is a dramatic MTA News documentary series highlighting the persecution of Ahmadi Muslims and their unjust imprisonment on false charges
The year is 1985. General Zia-ul-Haq’s tyrannical regime in Pakistan is at its height.
Ahmadi Muslims are being attacked, falsely charged for crimes they didn’t commit, and jailed en masse.
Sukkar, a city in the province of Sindh, Pakistan becomes a hotbed of anti-Ahmadi sentiment and persecution and a series of events follow which would serve as a great miracle and a testament to the truth of the Ahmadiyya Khilafat.
A Muslim cleric in the city starts to incite the locals by saying killing an Ahmadi was a matter of great reward. Soon after, the long-standing Amir of Sukkar is ruthlessly stabbed multiple times and martyred on the doorstep of his house by a brainwashed radical who claims to have carried out a great service in the cause of Islam.
After that, the incidents of martyrdom continue in the city. “Almost everyone was ready to be martyred, such were the conditions in Sukkar,” Muzaffar Malik, who was falsely imprisoned in Sukkar, recalls.
Ahmadi Muslims in the town are now ever-ready to give up their lives for their faith. But murder is not the only plot being hatched by the extremist clerics in the town.
A bomb then goes off at the historic Manzilgah Mosque in Sukkur. Immediately, Ahmadis are blamed and false charges are set up.
Muzaffar Malik and six other Ahmadis are arrested on dubious charges, framed for the bombing and imprisoned. Their police line-up is staged with molvis falsely attesting that it was certainly them who threw the bombs.
Muzaffar Malik and Mohammad Ayub are taken into custody where Ayub is hung upside down and brutally tortured in front of other Ahmadi prisoners. He is left in that state all night.
Later, when asked how he coped through it all, Mohammad Ayub would say: “All I remember is that as soon as they left me hanging, I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was already daylight, and I didn’t feel any pain.”
Soon after, the pair are sent to Sukkur Central Jail, a maximum security prison. Here, they are subjected to hard labour. Muzzafar Malik, a skinny 25-year-old man was in no condition to carry out such labour. One day, while cleaning up leaves using a long branch from a date palm tree, the superintendent of the jail arrives and questions him.
The superintendent asks: “What’s your name?” He replies: “Muzaffar Ahmad Malik.” He then asks: “Are you educated?” Muzaffar Malik says: “Yes, I have a degree in technology.” He inquired: “What case are you involved in?” Muzaffar Malik tells him: “I’m here because of the bomb explosion at the mosque in Sukkur.”
“I thought that hearing this, he would get angrier,” Muzaffar Malik says as he describes the incident. Muzaffar Malik says: “He then asked: “Are you an Ahmadi? I replied in the affirmative.” At this, the superintendent says: “Ahmadis can’t do this kind of thing.” After a brief pause, he speaks again and orders his subordinate: “From now on, don’t assign this boy any work.”
Small miracles and help from God abound in this case. Whilst in prison, Ahmadis start preaching to the others and surprise them with their morals and faith. Tahajjud takes place daily and prayers are offered morning and evening which shocks the inmates who were told false information about Ahmadis by the clerics.
Whilst in prison they receive frequent letters of prayers from Hazrat Khalifatul Masih IVrh who consoles them and comforts them, proud of their bravery and faith whilst imprisoned.
Then, Zia-ul-Haq signs off the death warrant for Muzaffar Malik and Mohammad Ayub. The case against them is so strong that a certain death awaits them. They write to Huzoorrh seeking prayers and guidance. Huzoorrh writes back: “If you are sentenced to be hanged, embrace the noose”, yet he added: “But I have full trust in my Allah.”
Mohammad Ayub then sees a dream in which he presents mangoes to Huzoorrh and he informs him of this through a letter. Huzoorrh replies: “Your dream is very auspicious. Your release will take place before the beginning of next year’s mango season.”
Soon after, they are unexpectedly released from prison with an acquittal order signed by Zia-ul-Haq himself.
“Today, the words of the Khalifa have been fulfilled,” their lawyer Syed Ali Ahmad Tariq says as he embraces them on their release. “Your release is from God, it is truly a miracle. It was impossible.”
Faith in Chains: Jailed for Believing is now streaming on MTA News.