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| India-Pakistan |
| Religious leader shot dead in Khyber Agency by rival militants |
| 2008-05-21 |
| A leader of the Ansarul Islam, a religious group in the Khyber Agency, was killed in a local bazaar on Tuesday. Maulana Mastamin, an outspoken leader of the group, was killed in Gagrina Bazaar in the Zakha Khel area at 10am. According to eyewitnesses, some unidentified men threw Mastamin out of a vehicle in the bazaar and shot him dead. The Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), a militant group, has claimed that it had killed Mastamin. A spokesman of the group told Daily Times that Mastamin was a US spy, and that “his killing had become obligatory because he was passing information regarding the Tribal Areas to the United States”. The LI had reportedly detained Mastamin for three months before killing him. But LI chief Mangal Bagh had denied such reports on his private FM radio. He had been suggesting that Mastamin might have been kidnapped by government agencies with his “own consent”. Mastamin had been kidnapped from Peshawar near the Hayatabad hospital complex three months ago and reportedly handed over to the LI. He was believed to have been a strong supporter of Ansarul Islam chief Maulana Mehboob, who leads a Deobandi religious group of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, and is the archrival of the LI in Tirah Valley. The LI spokesman alleged that Mastamin was instrumental in the fight in Tirah Valley, in addition to supporting the political administration against the LI. The LI charged Mastamin with crimes against the local people for his financial gains. Mastamin’s father, Muhammad Amin, said they had been targeted for their support to the government. Another Ansarul Islam leader, Haji Ghulam Nabi, was also kidnapped from Peshawar a few days ago. |
| Posted by:Fred |