Targeted: Faqir of Kulachi, 2 others die in DI Khan blast

Faqir Jamshed Ahmad raised his own militia against the Taliban before joining the PTI

DI KHAN: Faqir Jamshed Ahmad, the sajjada nashin (successor) of Dera Ismail Khan’s Noori Darbar Kulachi shrine and a former National Assembly election candidate, was killed along with his guard and driver on Monday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.

Sadiq Hussain Baloch, the district police officer in DI Khan, said that Ahmad, a one-time Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial leader, was in his vehicle driving on the Maddi Road where an improvised explosive device went off.



In response, policemen cordoned off the area and began a search operation. Three suspects were later rounded up.

Baloch pointed out that around 10 kilogrammes of explosives was used in the blast, adding that the sound of the blast was heard far and wide, which created panic among residents.

As he was the janashin of Noori Darbar, hence his admirers were not only present in DI Khan, but also across the country.

Faqir Jamshed Ahmad
was a geologist-turned-Sufi who then raised his own militia against the Taliban before he joined the PTI. Jamshed’s death is the second major political assassination in DI Khan over the past two years.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s law minister Israrullah Gandapur was killed in a suicide attack in October last year during Eid celebrations at his house.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th,2014.