New Delhi: At least 45 people were killed and another 150 injured in a suicide bombing Sunday at a rally organised by the religious conservative political party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam – Fazl (JUI-F), a member of Pakistan’s ruling coalition government. The Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The bombing, which took place in Bajaur district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, occurred when over 400 JUI-F members and supporters were gathered under a tent. The bomber reportedly detonated his explosives-laden jacket in close proximity to the stage. A local JUI-F leader, Maulana Ziaullah Jan, the emir (leader) of Khar tehsil, was also killed in the blast.
“The attack comes in the natural context of the ongoing war waged by the Islamic State against ‘democracy’ as a regime hostile to true Islam and in conflict with its divine law,” the group’s Amaq agency reportedly posted on Telegram Monday.
Notably, the JUI-F has in the past been known for supporting the Taliban, but it has of late distanced itself from hardliners working against the Pakistan government.
The ISKP, the Afghanistan affiliate of Islamic State, on the other hand, has been tussling with the Taliban in Afghanistan and accusing it of abandoning jihadist ideology.
In a tweet, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called the bombing an attack “against the democratic system” in the country and promised to identify and punish those responsible.
The incident comes at a time when Pakistan is witnessing an alarming increase in terror attacks.
A total of 271 terror incidents took place in the first half of 2023, as compared to 151 in the same period last year, according to a report in Dawn, citing figures from the think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS). It claimed 389 people lost their lives this year, up from 293 in the corresponding period in 2022.
The report further said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous Pashtun-dominated province bordering Afghanistan in northwestern Pakistan, was among the hardest hit. The province saw 174 terror attacks that claimed 266 lives as of June this year.
The JUI-F, a conservative party associated with hardline political Islam, wields significant influence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a major ally of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and holds a crucial position in the governing coalition. Maulana Fazlur Rehman leads the party, while his son Maulana Asad Mahmood is the federal communications minister of Pakistan.
ThePrint explains who the JUI-F are, and why there has been a surge of terror attacks in Pakistan, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
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What is the JUI-F?
The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam – Fazl is a Deobandi Sunni political party with a substantial support base in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
In terms of broad ideological principles, the party believes in the implementation of Sharia law and stands against westernisation. However, it has toned down this stance over time, with Maulana Fazlur Rehman once reportedly even calling himself a ‘moderate’.
The party has its roots in the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind (JUH), which was founded with a strong anti-colonial stance and actively participated in the Khilafat movement during the 1920s. The JUH, however, split into two factions in the 1940s, with one offshoot— the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI)— supporting the creation of Pakistan.
Subsequently, in the 1960s, Maulana Mufti Mahmud founded the JUI in its present political form. His son and current leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman took the baton from him in 1980.
Under Rehman, the JUI-F joined the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in the 1980s after the then President of Pakistan Ziaul Haq went back on the promise of holding elections in Pakistan, according to a profile of the party in the Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn.
In the same piece, Dawn explains that JUI-F depends on Deobandi mosques and schools for recruitment of new members, “which is fundamentally why its middle and top ranks comprise mostly of madrassah-oriented theologians”.
As a member of the religious right in Pakistan, the JUI-F has been a votary of imposing Sharia law across Pakistan, most vocally so when it was a member of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), a religious six-party coalition that came into play during the 2002 election. From May 2004 till November 2007, Maulana Fazlur Rehman was the Leader of the Opposition in the Pakistan National Assembly.
Dawn reports that the party opposes US drone attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal regions, has been critical of “pro-American” government policies, and stresses the importance of prioritising the Kashmir issue in foreign policy. Maulana Fazlur Rehman was the longest serving chairman of Pakistan’s parliamentary committee on Kashmir.
Notably, the party supports granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India for economic benefits.
It has also earned criticism in the past, including allegations of being pro-Taliban and for its less-than-progressive views on the role of women in society.
In September 2020, Fazlur Rehman and the JUI-F founded the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a coalition of 11 parties that includes the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party. Maulana Fazlur Rehman is the president of the PDM.
On 10 April 2022, the PDM coalition succeeded in passing a motion of no-confidence against the then PM of Pakistan Imran Khan. Shehbaz Sharif succeeded him as the Prime Minister of Pakistan on 11 April 2022.
Surge in terror attacks, looming polls
Pakistan has seen a surge in terror attacks over the last couple of years, with a huge spike in 2022.
According to a report published by Pakistani think tank PICSS in January, terror incidents in 2022 were 28 per cent higher than in 2021, with a 37 per cent rise in deaths and a 35 per cent increase in injuries.
The year 2022, it added, saw the highest number of militant attacks in the past five years, with at least 376 terror attacks, causing 533 casualties and injuring 832 people, the report added.
One of the most afflicted provinces was Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where militant attacks increased by 119 per cent in 2022 as compared to the previous year.
The PICSS report elaborates on the possible role of the banned militant organisation Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“The upward trend in militant attacks started in 2020 the same year when different factions of TTP were reunited. However, unprecedented escalation was witnessed from May 2021 onwards, which coincided with the offensive of the Afghan Taliban against the security forces of the previous regime. The violence further increased in Pakistan after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021,” the report notes.
While the TTP entered a ceasefire agreement with the Pakistan government in June 2022, it pulled out just months later in November. It also reportedly ordered its militants to stage attacks around the country.
In January, a suicide bomber allegedly linked to the TTP blew himself up in a mosque in a police compound in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing over 100 people, according to reports.
However, the TTP is not the only extremist group in this region. The US State Department’s ‘Country Reports on Terrorism 2021‘ outlined how both the ISKP and the TTP have been using the Afghanistan-Pakistan border as a safe haven.
As these attacks continue, Pakistan faces looming elections. Prime Minister Sharif announced in July 2023 that he would hand over the reins to a caretaker Prime Minister in August 2023, as the term of Pakistan’s National Assembly ends on 12 August, allowing the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct elections within 90 days.
However, Pakistan’s former counter-terrorism chief Khawaja Khalid Farooq has reportedly said that the “justification for postponing the election can strengthen if a series of such attacks continue to happen”.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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