PESHAWAR: A local cleric who advocated for peace in the militancy-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province was killed in a targeted bomb blast at a bazaar in Pakistan’s Wana town on Monday, a police official said, as Islamabad struggles to contain militancy in its northwestern province bordering Afghanistan.
The blast took place in the main bazaar in Wana, a town in Pakistan’s South Waziristan district. Mufti Jan Mir was killed after an improvised explosive device detonated near the room of a supermarket in which the cleric was sitting, police said.
“It was a planted bomb and the target was the religious leader as it caused no further casualties,” District Police Officer Muhammad Tahir Shah told Arab News.
Shah said the cleric sustained critical injuries in the explosion and was immediately shifted to Wana Hospital, where he later succumbed to his wounds.
Following the explosion, security personnel rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area. Police collected forensic evidence from the blast site in a bid to identify those responsible for the blast, Shah added.
No other injuries or fatalities were reported in the blast, the district police officer said.
’POWERFUL VOICE FOR PEACE’
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast. However, militant groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have carried out attacks against tribal chiefs or clerics who spoke out publicly against militancy.
Another police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press, said Mir was a “highly respected” religious leader in the area and was considered a “powerful voice for peace.”
“In his sermons and public addresses, he consistently spoke out for harmony and stability, using different forums to call on communities to reject violence,” the police official said.
“Just a few weeks ago, he delivered a speech urging people to unite and work together to secure lasting peace in the area.”
Local tribal elder Ali Marjan Wazir told Arab News that Mir publicly opposed militant activities by the TTP in the restive North and South Waziristan districts. He also held both the government and militants responsible for the deteriorating security situation in the province.
Pakistan’s KP province has been gripped by militant violence in recent months. A suspected suicide bomber killed at least 14 people, including police officers and civilians, in the northwestern Swat district on Sunday, police said.
The blast occurred outside the Kabal police station in Swat as participants dispersed after local residents and civil society groups organized a rally to protest renewed militant violence in the region.
Pakistan blames the recent surge in militancy in the area to “terrorist” outfits that it alleges operate out of neighboring Afghanistan. Kabul rejects Islamabad’s accusations that the Afghan government provides support to such militant groups.
