PESHAWAR: One person was killed and six others injured in a blast triggered by an improvised explosive device (IED) targeting a senior leader of a prominent religio-political party in South Waziristan district on Sunday, leaving him in critical condition, police said.
The attack on Maulana Shehzad Wazir comes amid complaints from his Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party about being targeted by militants operating in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also voiced concerns over militant threats disrupting the party’s election campaign in the region ahead of the February 8 national polls, citing warnings from law enforcement about dangers to its candidates.
“The IED was planted in a street leading to Maulana Shehzad Wazir’s mosque, who is politically affiliated with the JUI-F,” Bilal Wazir, a police officer in Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan tribal district, told Arab News over the phone. “Mufti Ijaz Wazir died on the spot while six others, including Maulana Shehzad Wazir, who was apparently the target of the attack, were left in critical condition.”
The officer said a police contingent was dispatched to the area soon after the explosion to gather evidence and shift the wounded to the hospital.
Asked about the intensity of the blast, he said it shook the entire neighborhood of Azam Warsak, a settlement on the outskirts of Wana.
Speaking to Arab News, Mufti Ijaz Shinwari, the JUI senior vice president in the tribal area, condemned the incident, saying the victims of the attack were religious leaders and key figures of his political party on the provincial level.
“This is inhumane,” he added. “This is clearly a terrorist attack and a cowardly act.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, though Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a banned militant group, has a history of targeting civilians, security forces and politicians in the region, aiming to perpetuate instability in KP.
In recent months, the TTP has claimed responsibility for several attacks and is suspected by officials in others.
Earlier this week, however, Daesh, a separate militant outfit, shot dead Hameed Sufi, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, in the adjacent Bajaur tribal district.
In June, four people, including Maulana Mirza Jan, the president of JUI’s Wana chapter, were shot by unidentified attackers.
Pakistan claims Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are providing shelter to TTP fighters across the porous border separating the two countries. However, the Afghan Taliban insists they do not allow anyone to use their soil to launch violent attacks in the neighborhood.
One killed in northwestern Pakistan blast targeting religio-political party leader
https://arab.news/gy2fv
One killed in northwestern Pakistan blast targeting religio-political party leader
- Attack on Maulana Shehzad Wazir of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam has left him critically injured
- The JUI leader was on his way to a mosque in Azam Warsak when the explosion took place
From classrooms to screens: Pakistan schools go online amid Middle East war-driven oil crisis
- Government orders school closures, remote work and fuel cuts to conserve energy
- Measures follow oil price surge linked to US-Israeli strikes on Iran and regional tensions
RAWALPINDI: Some schools in Pakistan shifted to online learning this week as authorities introduced emergency fuel-saving measures after global oil prices surged due to the escalating conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
The government has ordered a series of austerity steps aimed at reducing fuel consumption, including temporary school closures, remote work arrangements for a portion of government and private sector employees, and sharp cuts in fuel allocations for official vehicles. The measures were introduced after international oil prices jumped amid fears the widening Middle East conflict could disrupt supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital global energy shipping route, raising costs for import-dependent economies such as Pakistan.
Parents in cities including Rawalpindi said many educational institutions had already informed families through social media that classes would be conducted online while campuses remained closed.
“Hopefully, all the schools will remain closed today because many of the institutions have already shared the message on social media that we will be taking classes online for the students,” said Misam Abbas, a 30-year-old father of schoolchildren.
Pakistan’s education system is still recovering from severe disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools across the country remained closed for extended periods and millions of students shifted to remote learning.
The closures lasted around 10.5 months in some areas, affecting nearly 40 million school-age children, while limited Internet access and digital devices meant many students could not fully participate in online classes. Education experts say the prolonged shutdowns caused significant learning losses and pushed some children permanently out of the school system. 
Even after the pandemic, schooling in Pakistan has faced repeated interruptions due to environmental and health emergencies. In recent years, dense winter smog, extreme heatwaves and cold spells have frequently forced authorities to suspend classes, sometimes for 10 to 12 days at a time, shortening the academic year and disrupting teaching schedules.
Analysts warn that repeated closures and the shift to online learning, often difficult for students without reliable Internet access, continue to strain an already fragile education system. 
For many families, the sudden switch to remote learning has also raised concerns about prolonged disruptions to education if the austerity measures remain in place.
“They [the government] should not close [schools] for a long time because it suffers a lot. The students… should think that they are to close the school for two to three days, not for all the weeks, not for two to three weeks because that can suffer the studies of these small kids,” Abbas said.
Pakistan imports most of its crude oil and refined petroleum products, making domestic energy costs highly sensitive to global price swings during geopolitical crises.
“Our situation should not be affected by the world’s situation. The world is already in a bad situation. But in our country, we should have some good system so that people cannot be affected by those circumstances,” Abbas said.
