3 Afghan clerics gunned down in Peshawar

KABUL’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, an official said on Sunday. 

The triple murder took place after Friday’s prayers in Gange area of the metropolis, an Afghan refugee, Azizullah, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a seminary in the area, killing the madrasa head, Maulvi Ghulam Hazrat, his father and another scholar Sheikh Ilyas.

Azizullah said the religious scholars were residents of Pachiragam district of eastern Nangarhar province who had been living in Peshawar for the last three decades. 

A man, who wished to go unnamed, said the slain scholars belonged to Pir Saifur Rahman religious group in Bara area of Peshawar where the group has been engaged in a bloody rivalry with another group over the past several years.

Taliban militants condemned the assassination of Afghan clerics in Peshawar.

A statement from Taliban confirmed three Afghan scholars including Mualvi Ghulam Hazrat, Mualvi Mohammad Nasim Hanafi and Qari Sayed Murad were recently killed in Pakistan.

The Taliban asked the Pakistani government to take care of Afghan Islamic scholars and punish the perpetrators of such incidents.

pk/mds/ma