A prominent leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) in Balochistan, Pakistan, Mufti Abdul Baqi Noorzaei was tragically assassinated near Quetta. While near the Quetta Airport, unidentified assailants gunned him down, leaving him gravely injured. It is reported that he was rushed to a nearby hospital but sadly succumbed during treatment. The Islamic State's Pakistan Province (ISPP) has claimed responsibility for this attack.
As of now, officials have not identified the assailants or their motive behind Noorzaei's assassination. This murder adds to the rising incidents of targeted killings in Pakistan and the region of Kashmir under its control. In the past three years, over a dozen handlers of groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Hizbul Mujahideen have been killed by unknown perpetrators.
This attack follows the murders of senior Deobandi leaders and Jamaat-ud-Dawa officials Mufti Shah Mir and Hameedul Haq. Mir was shot dead, and Haq, along with a dozen others, was killed in a suicide bomb attack at Darul Uloom Haqqania, also known as the 'University of Jihad'.
Recently, a top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander, Zia-ur-Rehman, was also killed in Punjab's Jhelum, being shot dead. Rehman, a close aide of Lashkar's founder Hafiz Saeed, was wanted for numerous terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
In January 2023, terrorists orchestrated a shooting in Dangri, resulting in five deaths. The following day, explosive devices took two more lives and injured 14 people. Rehman is also accused of planning an attack on a bus carrying devotees to the Shiv Khodi Temple on June 9, 2024, where 9 were killed and 41 injured.
