Target killing: Former JUI-F leader slain in Lakki Marwat
Maulana Mohsin Shah had been receiving threats ever since he established a peace jirga in the area.
LAKKI MARWAT:
Unidentified assailants killed Maulana Syed Mohammad Mohsin Shah, a district leader of a peace jirga lashkar in Lakki Marwat district on Sunday.
Shah was a former Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) group district chief and was attacked at dawn inside his seminary at Jamia Haleemia, Dara Pezo.
According to the Lakki Marwat District Police Officer (DPO) Umer Riaz, Shah received several death threats from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) soon after taking the responsibility as a head of the peace committee.
The DPO told The Express Tribune, that the assassin was probably acquainted with his target because it would have been difficult to seek him out and kill him in such a large seminary otherwise.
“The initial investigation reveals that it was a single shot from an AK-47 that killed the maulana on the spot,” he maintained.
“Early in the morning when I came to the seminary to wake my father for prayer, I saw him lying dead in a pool of blood,” Abdul Ghani, the son of the deceased told the police. Ghani registered an FIR against the unidentified killer at Shaheed Haibat Ali Khan Police Station.
Shah was a close ally of JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman. He established a peace lashkar after a suicide blast on January 2010 in the Hassan Khel volley ball ground.
Activists protest
Meanwhile, activist of JUI-F staged a protest in Charsadda District against the murder . The activists started marching from Darul Uloom Islamia Charsadda to Farooq Azam Square where the JUI-F district chief and former MNA Gohar Shah addressed the protesters, demanding that the government expose the forces behind the recent spate of target killings of religious leader.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 14th, 2012.
Unidentified assailants killed Maulana Syed Mohammad Mohsin Shah, a district leader of a peace jirga lashkar in Lakki Marwat district on Sunday.
Shah was a former Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) group district chief and was attacked at dawn inside his seminary at Jamia Haleemia, Dara Pezo.
According to the Lakki Marwat District Police Officer (DPO) Umer Riaz, Shah received several death threats from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) soon after taking the responsibility as a head of the peace committee.
The DPO told The Express Tribune, that the assassin was probably acquainted with his target because it would have been difficult to seek him out and kill him in such a large seminary otherwise.
“The initial investigation reveals that it was a single shot from an AK-47 that killed the maulana on the spot,” he maintained.
“Early in the morning when I came to the seminary to wake my father for prayer, I saw him lying dead in a pool of blood,” Abdul Ghani, the son of the deceased told the police. Ghani registered an FIR against the unidentified killer at Shaheed Haibat Ali Khan Police Station.
Shah was a close ally of JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman. He established a peace lashkar after a suicide blast on January 2010 in the Hassan Khel volley ball ground.
Activists protest
Meanwhile, activist of JUI-F staged a protest in Charsadda District against the murder . The activists started marching from Darul Uloom Islamia Charsadda to Farooq Azam Square where the JUI-F district chief and former MNA Gohar Shah addressed the protesters, demanding that the government expose the forces behind the recent spate of target killings of religious leader.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 14th, 2012.