Ahmadi community in Pakistan says one of their members is beaten to death by Islamists

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — A mob of Islamists allegedly beat to death a member of Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community Friday while demonstrating near an Ahmadi place of worship in Karachi, a member of the community said. Police said they were investigating the killing.

The victim, identified as Laeeq Cheema, died before he could receive medical treatment at a hospital in the southern port city, said Amir Mahmood, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community. Government Civil Hospital spokesperson Summaiya Tariq confirmed the death of Cheema, saying he had multiple injuries.

Mahmood blamed the attack on a mob of people from the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, or TLP, a radical Islamist party, and said they had rallied outside the Ahmadi place of worship and tried to damage it.

Senior Karachi police official Asad Raza told local media outlets that they had deployed additional police to avoid any unrest in the city ahead of the TLP rally. He said Cheema was killed away from the Ahmadi worship site, and that police were still trying to confirm who attacked him.

Karachi police rescued community members from the worship site after it was surrounded by demonstrators, Mahmood said, but he also complained that police have been slow to take action against TLP protests nationwide.

There are about half a million of Ahmadis in Pakistan, which has a population of 250 million. The Ahmadi religion is an offshoot of Islam, but Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. Ahmadi homes and places of worship are often targeted by Sunni militants who consider them heretical.

Video footage that Mahmood shared with The Associated Press showed crowds chanting anti-Ahmadi slogans outside the worship site. He said TLP supporters had been holding such protests every Friday and that police had not taken any action in previous weeks.

TLP has risen in prominence in recent years by organizing demonstrations, and is known for supporting Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, which carry the death penalty for anyone who insults Islam.

Paramilitary soldiers and police officers stand guard at outside the Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community's place of worship, where supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan or TLP party hold a demonstration against the Ahmadi, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP P hoto/Fareed Khan)

Police officers arrive to control the situation as supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan or TLP party hold a demonstration against the Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community at outside their place of worship, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP P hoto/Fareed Khan)

Police officers rescue members of Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community from their place of worship, where supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan or TLP party hold a demonstration against the Ahmadi, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP P hoto/Fareed Khan)

Police officers rescue members of Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community from their place of worship, where supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan or TLP party hold a demonstration against the Ahmadi, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP P hoto/Fareed Khan)

Police officers stand guard at outside the Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community's place of worship, where supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan or TLP party hold a demonstration against the Ahmadi, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP P hoto/Fareed Khan)

BRUSSELS (AP) — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stepped down temporarily pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the court announced Friday.

Karim Khan has categorically denied accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.

The ICC's announcement was welcomed by women's rights groups, who had called for Khan to step down after the allegations emerged last year.

“In any other professional setting, someone facing such serious allegations would have been expected to step down months ago,” said Eimear Shine, a spokesperson for The Hague-based Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice.

An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that two court employees, in whom the alleged victim confided, reported the alleged misconduct in May 2024 to the court’s independent watchdog. That was a few weeks before Khan sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders on war crimes charges.

The watchdog said it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan himself wasn’t questioned at the time.

While the watchdog could not determine wrongdoing, it nonetheless urged Khan in a memo to minimize contact with the woman to protect the rights of all involved and safeguard the court’s integrity.

The ICC statement on Friday said Khan “communicated his decision to take leave until the end” of an external investigation being carried by the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the U.N. internal watchdog.

The court’s deputy prosecutors will be in charge of managing the prosecutor’s office while Khan is on leave, the statement said.

The work of the court will continue, according to Danya Chaikel, the ICC representative from the International Federation for Human Rights. “The cases and investigations have been carried out by professionals,” she told the AP.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration filed sanctions against Khan in February in relation to his Israel warrants. The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations at the court.

FILE - Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court looks up prior to a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)