There is very little evidence to show that the Pakistan's public in general have any deeply rooted hatred towards Ahmadis. In the riots of 1953 most general public helped Ahmadis escape persecution & rioting. Even though they will never publicly acknowledge it, they do not approve of the Mullahs who incite hatred. In riots of 1973, my family was the only Ahmadis household in the village. They were offered food & water from one of the old neighbors, who was herself a devout Sunni Muslim. She went out of her way, actually in harms way, to provide our family water and other basic necessities of life which were boycotted as per the call of the Maulvi Sahib of our village.
So, one might ask then why there is such a perceived popular support for persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan?
(1) It is the "Mob mentality" & playing "religion card" of the religious extreme who comprise of Mullahs & public officials. Pakistanis in general do not oppose anything that is initiated in the name of religion. All political parties, weather religious or non-religious, dictators or popular leaders have always exploited religion.
(2) There is no media frenzy about the persecution of Ahmadis. They are treated like the untouchables of India. So the general public doesn't even know what the Mullahs or the government under their pressure is doing. The news are soo biased that it seems they don't want to go even an inch beyond the status quo set by the religious leaders about Ahmadis in fear of damage to their own property.
For example, when the Mullahs mobbed the Ahmadiyya Mosque under construction in Rawalpindi, I was present at the scene. My father was part of the committee that went to the city council and got the whole plan for the mosque approved. It was suppose to be built on the site of an old mosque which was not big enough anymore. The police intervened only after the mob had demolished one side of the under construction mosque.
The matter went to court, but there was no mention of it in Newspapers, one can forget the television. Within a few weeks district court came up with the decision, where the court sided with the Mullahs who argues such a mosque will "offend the general Muslim public of the neighborhood" even though an old mosque in the same place still exists & had been for years! Systematically, the decision was delivered on the afternoon of Thursday, right before the end of the regular work hours, so no appeal can be made. The next morning, on the Holy day of Friday,** government bulldozers**, under the supervision of the Police of Pakistan, came and demolished the rest of the mosque as well. None of the senior district or even city official were present, other than the regular police officers. Though a lot of Mullahs along with their local supporters changed slogans of "Allah-o-Akbar" at the distruction of the mosque. Saturday Newspapers reported on the inner sides in a small little column, within 10 lines it stated something to the effect 'Ahmadiyya religious place (Because calling it a mosque is illegal according to the amendments of constitution of Pakistan) was demolished by government officials after complaints from local residents of disturbance & security risks'.
So while Pakistanis shout at the top of their lungs pointing fingers at India & how their government (which BTW at least condemned the act even for lip service) let the Hindu hard liners demolished the Babri Masjid, they never look at the behavior of their own government or their "leaders" or criticize them for all the government aided persecutions that they commit every day.
One wonders how the noble soul of Jinnah will be feeling at this day on the celebration of the Independence of Pakistan, for which he said: "You are free, free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with the business of the state."
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