Blast in South Waziristan targets JUI-F leader

Local police sources have reported that a detonation occurred in the lower South Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The explosion was near Shahzad Madrassah, close to a police station in the district’s Azam Warsak market. The incident involved the vehicle of Maulana Noorullah, a prominent leader of the JUI-F. The target was unharmed, as were the local party leaders Maulana Ishaq and Maulana Amanullah, who were travelling with him. There were no reported casualties in the blast. In the aftermath of the incident, security forces established a cordon around the affected area and initiated an investigation to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of the attack. In recent months, JUI-F leaders have been targeted in several parts of KP and Balochistan, with similar incidents reported resulting in civilian injuries. On 14 March, Abdullah Nadeem, the JUI district chief, and three other individuals sustained injuries in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast at a mosque in the South Waziristan district. On 25 April, a local JUI-F leader and two women were killed, and five others were injured near Kalat district’s Kapootu area when a pick-up truck carrying 8 people was hit by a roadside IED near Killi Kapootu.