BAJAUR: For 11-year-old Abuzar Khan, the JUI-F gathering in Khar was an opportunity to make some money to support his family.

Unaware of the fate that awaited him, he arrived at the venue after noon prayers to sell snacks. A few hours later, he perished in the deadly bombing that has so far claimed 63 lives.

Javed Khan was 40km from his house, selling dry fruit in Lower Dir, when the news of his son’s death reached him.

Since the gathering was close to his house, Abuzar went there to sell snacks, he said, adding, “My son was very talented and I wanted him to study and become a good [civil] servant.”

The bombing not only took away his son, but also his dreams of a better future.

Ijaz Ahmed, who got married 11 days ago, was already wary of the precarious security and economic situation in Bajaur. However, to take his mind off the problems, he joined his friends to attend the gathering — never to return.

“His wife and mother are in a state of shock as they struggle to come to terms with reality,” his uncle Irfanullah, told Dawn.

As residents visit his house in the impoverished Alzi village of Khar tehsil to offer condolences, a cloud of gloom hangs over the locality.

According to his uncle, the 21-year-old wanted to go to Saudi Arabia to work as a labourer last month but postponed his plans upon the family’s insistence and tied the knot instead. Being the primary breadwinner, he still wanted to go to Saudi Arabia and had finalised preparations for his departure a few days ago.

“He was very anxious over the dire financial conditions of the family and wanted his younger brothers to study,” his uncle said. But after his death, his elderly parents, two brothers, two sisters, and wife have fallen on hard times.

Ijaz, who ran a carpentry shop, was not affiliated with the JUI-F.

“He was only there to kill time,” his uncle lamented.

JUI-F in the crosshairs

Bajaur is no stranger to violence, nor is the JUI-F; the area has been witnessing a pattern of attacks targeting supporters of the party since October 2019.

On Oct 28, 2019, unidentified armed men targeted JUI-F Mamund tehsil chief Mufti Sultan Mohammad on his way to a mosque for morning prayers in his native Badan village.

No one had claimed responsibility for the killing. Sources, however, believed that the attack on Mufti Sultan had followed an incident in which his family had detained a militant reportedly belonging to the IS-K after the killing of a local in Mamund.

They said that party leadership and family members believed IS-K was behind the killing, with the motive being revenge.

In Nov 2021, Mufti Sultan’s family was attacked again when unknown motorcyclists targeted his younger brother Muhammad Ilyas near Government High School No. 1 in Khar, after he appeared for an MA exam.

In March 2021, JUI-F’s deputy chief of the Mamund chapter Maulana Abdul Salam Haqqani was targeted in a remote-controlled bomb blast in Damadola. In April 2022, unknown attackers killed another JUI-F leader Mufti Bashir Ahmed, who also hailed from the same tehsil.

On August 15, 2022, unknown attackers targeted Khar tehsil council chairman Haji Said Badshah in an IED blast in the Salarzai area of the district. Mr Badshah and his two other companions were killed.

Mr Badshah’s killing prompted an unprecedented sit-in for eight days outside the Civil Colony Khar, where the houses of the district administration officials are located.

The protest attended by hundreds of people ended on August 27, 2022, after the district administration inked an agreement with the organisers to make efforts to curb attacks on political activists in Bajaur. But the killers continued to operate with impunity.

In June this year, unknown attackers shot dead another JUI-F leader Mufti Noor Muhammad and his brother on Inayat Killi Road. Mufti Noor also belonged to Mamund tehsil.

The JUI-F sources claimed that the suicide bombing on Sunday was an attempt to eliminate its tehsil chief, Ziaullah, who has been receiving threats from militants for a while now. These threats forced the 50-year-old politician to move to Peshawar along with his family.

The party leaders blamed the police for the security lapse, saying despite a request, the police failed to provide security to the venue. The police, however, claimed that the JUI-F had made no such requests.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2023