Mufti Kifayatullah of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was injured in a shooting at his residence in Malakand’s Tehsil Batkhela, according to authorities on Saturday. Levies officials reported that Kifayatullah, who serves as the JUI-F district president, was immediately transported to a hospital for treatment.
The incident also resulted in the deaths of two of his children, a son and a daughter, while his wife sustained injuries during the assault. Sources told Geo News that the attacker fled the scene after the family was targeted. Since the return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 2021, Pakistan has experienced a rise in cross-border terror incidents, particularly in the bordering provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
A report from the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an Islamabad-based think tank, revealed that the country faced 78 terrorist attacks in June, leading to at least 100 fatalities. The casualties included 53 security personnel, 39 civilians, six militants, and two members of local peace committees. Additionally, 189 people were injured, comprising 126 security force members and 63 civilians.
Overall, violence and counter-terrorism operations resulted in 175 deaths in June, including 55 security personnel, 77 militants, 41 civilians, and two peace committee members.
The attack on Kifayatullah follows a pattern of attacks on JUI-F leaders. In March, two JUI-F leaders, Wadera Ghulam Sarwar and Molvi Aman Ullah, were shot and killed in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district. Later that same month, a blast in a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s South Waziristan district injured at least four worshippers, including the JUI-F district chief Abdullah Nadeem, who was believed to be the target and was hospitalized with serious injuries.
