The mufti was from the Binori Town madrassa complex in Karachi, which is the theological center for all the Deobandi political and Jihadi groups. He and his peers are the ones who give religious legitimacy to the Jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir, as well as the apostisation of heretics within Pakistan.
Mufti Mohammad Jamil Khan's murder was the most high-profile in the recent spate of sectarian killings. The life of Mufti Mohammad Jamil Khan was a classic model of a Deobandi aalim, to be emulated by other Deobandi ulema. Hence, a high value target for the assassins. His death has deprived the Deobandi community of a leading aalim. He was born in 1953 in Karachi and did Daura-i-Hadith (course in the science of hadith) at the Jamia Uloom Islamia at Binori Town in Karachi in 1974. He also did a special two-year course to become a mufti. He was the spokesman and a member of the Almi Majlis Khatme Nabuwat of which he became a member in 1974. He fully participated in the anti-Ahmediya agitation in 1974 and was arrested during the movement. He also served as the central Information Secretary of the Jamiat Ulamae Islam (Fazlur Rehman) for some time. |