WATCH: What’s the religion of your cold drink? Pakistan mullahs smash bottles of mango juice brand owned by Ahmadiya

In a deeply fundamentalist Pakistan, even colas and soft drinks have a religion. And, if one does not conform to the dominant form of Islam, these, otherwise innocuous and thirst-quenching, beverages too have to bear the brunt of extremist Islamist fanatics. In an interesting, as well as disturbing video, that has emerged from Pakistan, a soft drink was penalised for being owned by minority Ahmadi community.

The mullahs are destroying mango juice drinks Shezan owned by Ahmadiyya community members.
In Pakistan drinks also have faith, so as buildings. Everything has a faith thanks to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and PPP.pic.twitter.com/rGQqWvD6ki

— Tahir Imran Mian ✈ (@TahirImran) July 26, 2023

Over a decade, Shezan, one of Pakistan’s foremost soft-drink manufacturers, is being banned and boycotted in various parts of the Asian nation since it is from a company owned by an Ahmadi. The boycott of Shezan drink is mere discrimination on the basis of faith. Shezan, a company founded in 1964, makes juices, soft drinks, syrups, squashes, jams, sauces, ketchups, chutneys and pickles, including a popular mango-flavored juice which is Children’s favourite in Pakistani children. Campaigns against Shezan are frequent with extremists targeting independent shops who stock the goods and company delivery vans and their drivers in Peshawar. Who are Ahmadis? The Ahmadis, a revivalist Islamic movement founded in the 19th Century by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, have long faced persecution in Pakistan and the wider region. They were declared non-Muslims by the Pakistani parliament in 1974 when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the Prime Minister. In May 2010, more than 85 Ahmadis were killed in bomb attacks on two Lahore mosques. On 25 July, 2023, the minarets of a worship place of the minority Ahmadi community were destroyed by unknown men in Pakistan’s Sindh province and “hateful” graffiti was drawn on its walls.