Police arrest three suspects in JUI-S chief's assassination probe

Used mobile phone data, geofencing to reach them

RAWALPINDI: Police have rounded up three suspects involved in the murder of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Sami (JUI-S) chief Maulana Samiul Haq.  The suspects have been sifted to a safe cell under strict security and are being grilled.

Police sources told Daily Express that Police Civil Lines Police Station Inspector Aziz is investigating the suspects arrested two days back. Sources said the SSP operations has also visit the cell twice.

The suspects were taken into custody with the help of Sami’s mobile phone data and geofencing of the private housing society where Sami was stabbed to death on November 2. He was 80.

Three different teams were set up for the investigations of the murder. The teams are working under the supervision of SSP Operations and CPO Rawalpindi Abbas Ahsan.



Sami’s son Hamidul Haq had told the media that his father was resting at his residence while his driver, who was also his security guard, was not present when the assailant scaled the wall to attack him with knife.

“His driver Haqqani had gone out. On his return, he found Maulana Sahib lying in a pool of blood in his bed,” he had told news channels on the day of the murder.

The assailant stabbed him several times in the chest and the head before fleeing the scene unidentified and unchallenged. The Maulana was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Hamidul Haq had revealed that his father, who was regarded as the spiritual father of Afghan Taliban including the most feared Haqqani Netwrok, was receiving threats from the Afghan government.

The former senator suffered from heart disease and was inactive for the last three months. He had to mediate between protesters and authorities in Islamabad on the day of his death.

Last month, a high-profile delegation from Afghanistan sought help of Maulana Samiul Haqto put an end to the 17-year-old deadly conflict in Afghanistan.

The cleric, however, had told the delegation that it was not easy for him to help resolve a complicated issue like the Afghan conflict, though he had said he wished to see an end to bloodshed in the country.



Haq was the founder of his eponymous Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and leader of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council. He had been twice elected to the upper house of parliament.

Maulana was born on December, 18, 1937 in Akora Khattak, an area in the Nowshehra district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He received his religious education from Darul Uloom Haqqania, the seminary founded by his father.

The assassination comes at a time when politico-religious parties were staging countrywide protests against the acquittal of blasphemy accused Aasia Bibi by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Haq’s assassination shocked the entire nation as political leaders and religious scholars strongly condemned the high-profile killing, demanding that the government bring the culprits to justice.