Unknown assailants shoot dead high-profile Afghan Taliban religious scholar in Pakistan

A top religious scholar, Mohammad Omar Jan Akhundzada, was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan, the Taliban government confirmed on Friday.

According to VOA, he was leading prayers at a mosque when gunmen stormed in and fatally shot him.

The Taliban condemned the killing and stated that Akhundzada was part of a government oversight committee of top Islamic scholars. He was also a senior adviser to the Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and taught at a “jihadi” madrasa in Kandahar.

Taliban chief Akhundzada was based in the Pakistani province and directed insurgent attacks from there against the United States-led foreign forces in Afghanistan until their withdrawal in August 2021, which paved the way for his fundamentalist group to reclaim control of the country, the news agency added.