Qadian, India - The Jalsa Saalana or annual convention of the Ahmadiyya sect of Muslims has been put off this year following the Mumbai terror attack, a sect spokesman said here Sunday.The religious meeting of the Ahmadiyyas was scheduled to be held here Dec 26-29 and has been put off indefinitely, spokesman Maqbool Ahmad said.
The sect’s London-based spiritual head, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who was touring Tamil Nadu and Kerala when the Nov 26-29 Mumbai carnage took place, was advised by security agencies to return to London in view of the increased threat to him, police sources here said.
The Ahmadiyya sect is a movement that originated in Islam in the late 19th century and was founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. The sect was founded and has its headquarters in this Punjab town in district Gurdaspur, 270 km from Chandigarh.
Ahmad said this year’s convention was expected to have hundreds of followers from Pakistan, a country where the sect followers are officially declared as non-Muslims.
“After the Mumbai terror attack, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the spiritual head of the sect, has opted to put off his visit to Qadian,” Ahmad said.
The sect chief has been vocal in condemning the Mumbai attacks and underlining that those indulging in terrorism in the name of Islam were against the tenets of the religion.