Senior leader of radical Sunni Sipah-e-Sahaba assassinated in Pakistan

Sunni Ulema Council Pakistan Deputy Secretary General Masood-ur-Rehman Usmani was gunned down while his driver was injured in an attack in Ghauri Town on Friday, police said.

According to Pakistani media reports, Usmani, one of the prominent figures of the extreme Sunnis of Pakistan, was returning home from Rawalpindi in his car when two armed men on a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire on his vehicle, killing him on the spot.

So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on this radical Sunni cleric in the capital of Pakistan. Sunni Ulema Council emerged after Pakistan outlawed the Sipah-e-Sahaba extremist group, which has been accused of killing thousands of Shiites in recent decades across the country.

Some experts on the affairs of militant groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan wrote that Usmani’s murder may be related to the recent incidents on the Iran-Pakistan border and the attack of militants on Iran’s security forces.

Tirmezi Sadat, a researcher of jihadi groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan, wrote in his post on X: “Various factors could be behind this murder. One is Iran’s claim indicating involvement of Pakistan-based Sunni militants in recent attacks on Iranian forces.”

He further added that Masood-ur-Rehman Usmani was one of the senior and influential leaders of the extremist Sunni militant group called Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), who had close ties with Riaz Basra, the leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is known as the military wing of SSP.

After the increase in attacks on Shiites in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Pakistani army destroyed the core of this group in several operations. At least in the last five years, the military wing of this extremist Sunni group has stayed away from military activities.

Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, founded by Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in 1985 in Pakistan’s Punjab, has carried out deadly attacks on Shiites in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The leaders and members of this group call Shiites infidels and until a few years ago, they blatantly considered attacking Shiites as legitimate.

This group, which is considered one of the most radical Sunni groups, has a good relationship with the Taliban, and their hands are stained with the blood of many Shiites in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Pakistani security institutions have not yet released more details about the murder of the former leader of SSP, and his relatives have not commented on this matter either.

Pakistan has seen increasing insecurity in its cities in the last two years, especially after the return of the Afghan Taliban to power.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Daesh Khorasan, and the Balochistan Liberation Army are the three active and powerful militant organizations in that country that have taken responsibility for the deadliest attacks.