A group of people demolished the minaret of the Ahmadiyya worship place at Karachi’s Dastagir Society on Wednesday, the community’s spokesperson has claimed.

In a statement, the community said that 15 to 20 “extremists” took two armed policemen on duty hostage and forcibly entered their place of worship. The incident occurred at “around 05:17 on Wednesday evening.”

Last year, it added that several places of worship of the community were targeted in Karachi. Cases were also registered in some of these incidents, but no “responsible could be punished, due to which the morale of the extremists is on a all time high.”

“Extremism is appearing in different forms in Pakistan,” it said and added that there was a need for the state institutions and civil society to stand strong against “this extremism because the extremist elements are determined to destroy the peace and order of our beloved country.”