Cleric Mufti Munir Shakir, the founder of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Islam, succumbed to injuries he received from a blast in Peshawar on Saturday, DAWN reported.

A statement from the police spokesperson said the incident took place in the vicinity of Urmur Police Station and Mufti Shakir was injured on his left foot in the blast. It said the other three injured in the incident were Khushal, Abid and Syed Nabi.

The statement added that personnel from the police, bomb disposal unit and Counter-Terrorism Department were present at the scene and evidence was being collected.

In a video message, Mohammad Asim, a spokesman for the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), said: “Mufti Shakir was brought to LRH in critical condition and succumbed to his injuries,” adding that the hospital was in the process of handing over the body to his heirs.

Special Assistant to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister on Health Ehtesham Ali issued a statement on the matter, saying he was “deeply saddened” to hear of the development.

CM Ali Amin Gandapur condemned the blast and sought a report from the police authorities on the incident. The chief minister directed authorities to carry out the “necessary steps” to arrest the suspects behind the blast and expressed his best wishes for the speedy recovery of the injured.

CM Gandapur also directed the hospital administration to provide the best medical assistance available to the injured.

Lashkar-i-Islam — a Bara-based militant organization in Khyber tribal region led by Mangal Bagh — was banned in 2008.

A local cleric in Bara, Mufti Shakir formed the Lashkar-i-Islam in December 2004 after Sipah and Malikdinkhel tribesmen announced their full allegiance to him. However, the cleric was expelled from Bar Qambarkhel area after only six months owing to his extremist views and differences with Haji Namdar, another militant commander of the area.

Both Mufti Shakir and Pir Saifur Rehman were forced to leave Bara after a jirga of local elders gave a consensus verdict following bloody clashes between the supporters of the two in early 2005. Mangal Bagh, a bus driver-turned-militant was elevated to the position of amir (chief) of Lashkar-i-Islam in May 2005.

Pakistani security forces demolished the house of Haji Rabat and destroyed the FM radio station set up in a mosque after they started the first military operation against Lashkar-i-Islam in mid-2005.

The leader of Daesh in Iraq and Syria has been killed, Iraq’s prime minister said on Friday, describing him as “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world.”

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay’i, also known as Abu Khadija, had been killed by Iraqi security forces, with the support of the U.S.-led coalition fighting Daesh, Reuters reported.

Former Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate over a quarter of Iraq and Syria in 2014 before he was killed in a raid by U.S. special forces in northwest Syria in 2019 as the group collapsed.

The U.S. Central Command said last July that the group was been attempting to “reconstitute following several years of decreased capability.”

The command based its assessment on Daesh claims of mounting 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria in the first half of 2024, a rate that would put the group “on pace to more than double the number of attacks” claimed the year before.

A blast tore through a mosque on Friday in northwestern Pakistan, police said, injuring an Islamist party leader and three others, including children.

Abdullah Nadeem, a local leader of the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) political party, was believed to be the target of the blast and had been hospitalised with serious injuries, said Asif Bahadar, a district police chief in South Waziristan. He said two children were among the injured.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the explosion.

Attacks have been escalating in Pakistan’s border regions with Afghanistan in recent months.

Last month, a suicide bomber killed six worshippers during Friday prayers at an Islamic seminary in northwestern Pakistan.

This week in southwestern Balochistan, separatist militants hijacked a train and held passengers hostage in a day-long standoff with security forces.

Pakistan has vowed to crack down on growing militancy and has said the militants are finding safe haven in neighbouring Afghanistan, a charge the Islamic Emirate denies.

(Reuters)