The Ahmadiyya movement was started in 1889 and follows the teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad whom they believe was sent by God as the Promised Messiah and Mahdi prophesied in Islam "to end religious wars, condemn bloodshed and re-institute morality, justice and peace."

[7] Human rights groups in Pakistan said that they had warned of threats to the Ahmadi community center in Model Town for more than a year, saying the government took inadequate steps to provide security.

[3][8] The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir; an independent expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall; and the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, claimed that because Ahmadis have been declared non-Muslims and have been subject to a number of restrictions, in many instances institutionalized discrimination, opinion makers are emboldened to seek to fuel hatred, and perpetrators of attacks against religious minorities find cannon fodder.

[11][12] The perpetrators lobbed grenades and started firing as they attacked mosques of the minority Ahmadi Muslim community in two different residential neighborhoods.

[13] The attackers at Garhi Shahu, including two would-be suicide bombers, entered the mosque without any resistance,[14] before storming into the prayer halls firing guns, throwing grenades.

"[19] Rana Sana Ullah Khan, the minister of law in Punjab, said the attackers stayed with the Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim missionary group.

[1] On 5 July 2010, Pakistani police arrested six men, members of the banned group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, believed to be linked to the attack.

"[21] The Lahore police also stated that the attacks were carried out by six militants belonging to Pakistani Taliban, who were trained in the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan.

"[23] In a joint statement with three United Nations human rights experts, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said "Members of this religious community have faced continuous threats, discrimination and violent attacks in Pakistan.

The Government must take every step to ensure the security of members of all religious minorities and their places of worship so as to prevent any recurrence of today’s dreadful incident."

"[1] An editorial published in Dawn condemned the attacks, commenting that "Bigotry in this country has been decades in the making and is expressed in a variety of ways.

"[24] In a statement made after the attacks the Interior Minister of Pakistan Rehman Malik admitted that militant groups were deeply entrenched in the southern part of Punjab and were destabilizing the country.