New Delhi: Islamic cleric Mufti Munir Shakir, who was killed after a bomb blast outside his mosque in Peshawar Saturday, was a prominent but controversial figure in Pakistan.
The founder of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Islam was holding his afternoon prayers in Jamia Masjid, near Urmar, a neighbourhood in the outskirts of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when an IED went off outside the mosque, injuring four people, including Munir Shakir.
He died at a hospital in Peshawar, Dawn reported.
Despite his controversial past, condemnation poured in from many quarters. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur condemned the attack and called for the swift arrest of those responsible.
“Mufti Munir Shakir has been martyred in an attack on him in Peshawar because he demanded peace and justice for our people. Terrorism continues to spread unchecked in Pakhtunkhwa. Our region is being turned into the killing grounds of our people yet again,” former senator and head of National Democratic Movement, Mohsin Dawar wrote on ‘X’.
Former Afghanistan vice-president Amrullah Saleh, too, condoled the killing of the cleric.
“Over the years, Mufti Shakir transformed from a local cleric focused on small issues into an ethno-nationalist figure who advocated for justice, aiming to reshape Pakistan’s power structures, which he believed were dominated by one ethnic group and province,” he wrote on ‘X’.
“He held strong opinions about how Pakistan’s intelligence agencies used the religious madrasa system to manipulate domestic politics and project foreign policy. This bold clarity likely cost him his life.”
Fiery speaker
Mufti Munir Shakir, a hardline cleric from Kurram region, made his way to Bara in Khyber Agency, a region in Pakistan’s volatile tribal areas in 2004.
Forced out of his hometown for inciting sectarian violence, Shakir’s arrival in Bara initially went unnoticed. But over time, his extremist views and fiery rhetoric would ignite a firestorm, giving birth to one of the most dangerous militant groups in Pakistan: Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI). The outfit was banned by the Pakistan government in 2008.
Shakir, a former radio preacher, had previously gained notoriety for his fiery sermons broadcast on the airwaves of a local radio station, where he denounced the Barelvi school of thought and targeted the Shia community.
A Deobandi cleric, he was a key figure in the Harkat-ul-Islam movement before moving to Khyber district in 2004. His radical views quickly attracted followers, many of whom were ready to embrace his vision of a strict, Deobandi interpretation of Islam.
He founded LeI in 2004 with the goal of enforcing this vision in Khyber district, starting with Bara.
Rise of Lashkar-e-Islam & ties with TTP
Lashkar-e-Islam’s rise was steeped in violent clashes with rival religious groups, particularly the Barelvi Sufi-led Ansar-ul-Islam, led by Pir Saifur Rehman, who had settled in the region after fleeing Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The two groups, with their opposing religious ideologies, became embroiled in a bitter, bloody conflict. Their rivalry came to a head in 2006 when a local jirga (tribal council) intervened, expelling both Shakir and Rehman from the region, Syed Manzar Abbas Zaidi, author and expert on Taliban politics, wrote in a 2010 article.
While Rehman accepted the decision, Shakir initially resisted but was eventually forced out by the locals. He then appointed Mangal Bagh, a local transporter, as his successor. Bagh would go on to lead Lashkar-e-Islam into its most violent and influential phase.
Under Bagh’s leadership, LeI’s ambitions extended beyond religious reform to full control over Khyber district, including the strategic Khyber Pass, a vital route to Afghanistan.
By 2008, LeI was a powerful force in the region, having expelled many rival groups and extended its influence. Lashkar-e-Islam became synonymous with brutal Sharia enforcement.
The group imposed harsh rules on the population, including bans on television, music, and even public gatherings. Women’s activities were restricted, and the group used violence to punish any defiance.
The Pakistani military launched multiple offensives to oust the militants, but LeI proved resilient, even regaining control of Bara after an initial pushback by the army in 2008. By 2015, the group had relocated to Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province due to pressure from Pakistan military.
However, the group’s fortunes began to change as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the country’s deadliest militant umbrella group, began to make inroads into Khyber district. The group that had once presented itself as a reformist group combating crime, later transformed into a terror group with strong ties to the TTP
Despite initially resisting the TTP offers to merge, the LeI eventually began cooperating with the Taliban, with the two groups sharing militants, resources, and strategies. This collaboration marked a shift for the Lashkar-e-Islam, which had previously avoided suicide bombings and direct attacks on the Pakistani state.
After joining forces with the TTP, the LeI launched a series of attacks, including a deadly bombing of the American consulate in Peshawar in 2010.
But Lashkar-e-Islam’s influence began to wane after 2010, when the Pakistani military launched a series of operations aimed at dismantling its operations in Khyber district. In the aftermath, many LeI militants and their families fled across the border into Afghanistan, where they were reportedly welcomed by local tribal leaders and, in some cases, the Afghan government.
In Afghanistan, LeI sought refuge in Nangarhar province, where it formed a loose alliance with the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-KP), sharing intelligence and resources to further its goal of destabilising Pakistan.
Despite these alliances, LeI’s operations were hampered by internal strife and growing tensions with IS-KP. By 2016, Mangal Bagh, the leader who had helped shape LeI into a potent force, was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone strike in Nangarhar. (There are reports suggesting he was killed in 2021) In the years since, Lashkar-e-Islam has continued to launch sporadic attacks across Pakistan, despite the severe losses it has suffered.
Despite the Pakistani military’s repeated offensives aimed at curbing LeI’s influence, the group remains a potent threat. In 2014, the Pakistan Army launched operations such as ‘Khyber 1’ and ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ to dismantle LeI’s network, but the group continued to carry out attacks, even after many of its leaders were killed or displaced.
LeI militants eventually fled across the border into Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, from where they continued to launch cross-border attacks to target Pakistani civilians and officials, especially in the Khyber district.
From militant moves to social changes
In his later years, Munir Shakir distanced himself from his early radical affiliations. He also became a vocal advocate for Pashtun rights, criticising the Pakistani state’s treatment of Pashtuns and supporting the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM). His involvement in the 2024 Pashtun Jirga highlighted his growing influence within the movement.
In a 2024 peace rally held outside the press club in Peshawar, Shakir addressed the crowd, condemning the ongoing violence in the region. He stated that one group in the war on terror kills Pakhtuns in the name of Islam, while another does so in the name of law and order.
“Both the warring parties have the certificates of killing the Pakhtuns with the different justifications,” he said. “We can force the Pakhtuns’ killers to leave our region by taking arms but we believe in peace.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: What is Tehreek-e-Labbaik, the radical group under spotlight after arrest of 11 Pakistanis in Spain