Mufti Shah Mir, known as a Pakistani religious scholar allegedly connected to Pakistan's ISI, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Balochistan on Friday night. He was reportedly ambushed while leaving a mosque after night prayers and succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds at the hospital.
According to reports, Mufti Shah was a member of the fundamentalist party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). Under the guise of a 'religious scholar,' he was involved in arms and human trafficking. According to a TOI report, he assisted Pakistan's ISI in kidnapping former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav from Iran.
Reportedly, this was the third attempt on his life in recent years; he had survived the previous two attempts.
In strife-hit Balochistan, many civilians, journalists, and politicians have disappeared in recent times. Locals suspect the government's involvement in these disappearances.
According to reports, over 40 fatalities were recorded during clashes in this region earlier this year.
Indian citizen Kulbhushan Jadhav, who took premature retirement from the Navy, was running a business in Iran's Chabahar and is now on death row in Pakistan. A Pakistani court convicted him of spying in 2017.
The Indian government criticised the manner in which the trial was conducted. Later, his execution was halted in 2019 after the International Court of Justice directed Pakistan to review his conviction and grant him consular access.
He was abducted near the Iran-Pakistan border in 2016 and handed over to the Pakistani army. He is currently imprisoned in Pakistan. Mullah Omar Irani, a Jaish al-Adl member who played a key role in Jadhav’s abduction, was reportedly shot dead by ISI operatives in Turbat in 2020.
In 2021, Pakistan passed a bill allowing Mr. Jadhav to appeal his conviction. However, India argued that the law retained the same "shortcomings" as previous legislation and failed to create conditions for a fair trial.
