A controversial Pakistani religious cleric, accused of assisting Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the abduction of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav from Iran, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Balochistan’s Turbat on Friday (March 7) night.
The deceased, identified as Mufti Shah Mir, was a cleric, a senior religious figure in Balochistan and had survived two previous assassination attempts, according to Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
The attack took place as Mir was leaving a local mosque in Turbat after night prayers. Eyewitnesses reported that two gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on him at point-blank range before fleeing the scene.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Mir was known to be a member of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), a radical Islamist group that has long been accused of fostering extremism in Pakistan. According to TOI, he was involved in arms and human trafficking, using his clerical status as a cover for his illicit activities.
More notably, intelligence sources suggest he had close ties with the ISI and was frequently seen at terror training camps in Pakistan. He was suspected of facilitating terrorist infiltrations into Indian territory.
His assassination comes just a week after two other members of JUI were killed in a similar attack in Khuzdar, Balochistan, raising speculations about targeted eliminations of extremist figures with ISI links.
Mir was instrumental in the 2016 abduction of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer who was running a legitimate business in Chabahar, Iran. Jadhav was kidnapped near the Iran-Pakistan border and handed over to Pakistan’s military, which later accused him of espionage and sentenced him to death in 2017 through a controversial military court ruling.
India strongly condemned the trial as unfair, highlighting that Pakistan denied Jadhav proper legal representation. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) intervened in 2019, halting his execution and directing Pakistan to review the conviction while granting consular access to India.
Despite the ICJ ruling, Jadhav remains imprisoned in Pakistan, with limited diplomatic access. In 2021, Pakistan passed a bill allowing him to appeal his conviction, but India dismissed the law as inadequate, stating that it did not ensure a fair trial.
Mir’s assassination is not the first instance of figures linked to Jadhav’s abduction being eliminated. In 2020, Mullah Omar Irani, a key member of Jaish al-Adl—an extremist group allegedly involved in Jadhav’s kidnapping—was mysteriously shot dead in Turbat. Reports at the time suggested that ISI operatives may have orchestrated his killing to cover up their involvement in Jadhav’s case.
