Question marks: Three clerics targeted in city in 10 days

The SHO said it appears the Afghan nationals were settling personal scores and by killing each other

PESHAWAR: At least three clerics have been targeted in the city
during the last 10 days.

In the first incident, an Afghan cleric identified as Sheikh Rahimullah, who was a teacher at a seminary, was shot and injured in Dir Colony. Speaking to the police at Lady Reading Hospital, Rahimullah said a man visited him and before he left, he pulled out his pistol and shot him. However, the attacker managed to flee the site.

This incident was followed by the killing of an Afghan cleric Naseem Khan, a resident of Lond Khwar, Mardan. He was killed inside Abu Hanifia Mosque in Ibrahimabad within the jurisdiction of Khazana police station. The attackers were unidentified and they managed to escape after committing the crime.

In another incident, an Afghan cleric, Maulana Ghulam Hazrat, who was settled in Akora Khattak, Nowshera, was killed when unidentified attackers opened fire on his vehicle on Phandu Road.

His murder is believed to bear a sectarian motive. His father Khwaja Muhammad was also killed in the attack. According to the police, he was on his way home after offering Friday prayers at Jamia Sadiq Akber when assailants opened fire on his vehicle. There were rumours that he was an Afghan national. However, the police managed to find his CNIC.

After his death, his followers held a protest against the police and demanded the arrest of the people responsible for the attack. They believed it was an incident of target killing.

While speaking to The Express Tribune, a police official said they were investigating the matter and it appears the cleric was targeted because of his religious beliefs.

“It looks like a sectarian attack as the cleric had a large number of followers but had some opposition too,” he said. Soon after the incident, a search and strike operation was launched in the area but the police failed to arrest them.

Another official said he believed the attacks were an outcome of a sectarian tussle. However, they needed to be thoroughly investigated and there could be some connection in all these three attacks.

Phandu SHO Sajjad Khan told The Express Tribune it was a “high-profile murder case” and would be probed by the counter-terrorism department instead of the local police.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd,  2016.