MANSEHRA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Mufti Kifayatullah was beaten up on Badra Road here in the wee hours of Wednesday with the party blaming the attack on the PTI government.

“Five masked and armed men traveling in two vehicles intercepted my car and tried to drag me out before hitting me with iron rods. I put up resistance, so one of them pulled out his gun to shoot me butthey all fled as a car drove in,” Mr Kifayatullah told reporters at the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital, where he was admitted after the attack.

The JUI-F leader suffered back and hand injuries in the attack. The incident occurred on Badra Road when Mr Kifayatullah was on the way to Mansehra from Islamabad in a car along with sons Mohammad Shabbir and Hussain Mufti and friend Mohammad Jan. The road links the Hazara Motorway interchange with the Karakoram Highway.

The FIR lodged by Hussain Mufti with the city police station under Pakistan Penal Code sections 324, 341, 148, 149 and 427 said the attackers also threw red chillies in eyes of his brother Mohammad Shabbir and beat up his father with iron roads.

It added that one of the attackers loaded his gun to target Mr Kifayatullah but they all fled as a car drove in speedily.

A spokesman for the police department, Mohammad Sohail, said an investigation had begun to arrest attackers and take them to justice.

The JUI-F activists took to the streets to protest the attack. The rally began from the Markazi Masjid on Abbottabad Road and ended outside the press club building. Former senator Hidayatullah Shah told protesters that the government was involved in the attack on Mr Kifayatullah. He warned that if attackers were not arrested within 24 hours, the street protests would spread to the entire country.

“We will hold a public meeting here today (Thursday), where the future course of action over the attack will be announced,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2019