Jock Cheetham

March 11, 2012

A man ”true and honest” … Muhammad Akram with his grandson Wajeeh Ahmed on his wedding day in April 2010.

He fled persecution in Pakistan for a new life in Australia, but the pull of family led to his return. Now Muhammad Akram has been gunned down in what his family calls an assassination for being an Ahmadi Muslim.

MUHAMMAD AKRAM climbed on to the back of his grandson’s motorcycle to go home for lunch, not knowing he had just minutes to live. The pair rode through the streets of Nawabshah in Pakistan where the Sydney grandfather had spent much of his life. As they parked under a tree, a motorcycle approached. One of two men, his face covered by cloth, put the gun close to Mr Akram’s back and fired.

This was the first assassination of an Australian Ahmadi Muslim, say Mr Akram’s family. The killing was religiously motivated, says the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan.

Some Muslims regard Ahmadis as heretical and their persecution by Sunni Muslim extremists is as old as Pakistan.

A Skype image of Mr Akram’s body transmitted from a laptop computer to the family in Sydney.