NEW DELHI: The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the killing of Mufti Abdul Baqi Noorzai, a senior functionary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Quetta in Pakistan’s Balochistan, on Sunday night.
Sources said the Deobandi cleric suffered life-threatening injuries from the gunfire that took place on airport road and was rushed to hospital. He died from his wounds en route to hospital, as confirmed by the medical facility’s officials, in what marked the first major IS strike in Pakistan in 2025.
The attack comes on the heels of assassination of senior Deobandi figures, JuI functionaries Mufti Shah Mir and Hamidul Haq. While Mir was shot, Haq and a dozen others were killed in a suicide bombing at the Darul Uloom Haqqania aka ‘University of Jihad’.
There has been no breakthrough in these cases, with investigators also looking into any link to the IS, which has declared war on the Taliban, a Deobandi organisation, in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) has been increasing its activities in Pakistan, posing significant security challenges to the country. The group’s emergence has created a spiral of terrorist violence, driven by ideological and sectarian conflicts as well as personal interests and dynamics of revenge.
