ISLAMABAD, May 30: Politicians have expressed extreme shock and horror at the assassination of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, an eminent religious scholar, and condemned the act as a conspiracy against peace.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain expressed his deep sense of shock and grief over the demise of Mufti Shamzai. Mr Hussain said that Mufti Sahib was a great religious leader and he worked tirelessly throughout his life for the unity of the Ummah.

He declared Mufti Shamzai's murder as a great loss for Pakistan and for the Ummah. Federal Minister for Information Sheikh Rashid Ahmed termed the assassination a great national tragedy, and an attempt by the vested interests to sabotage country's peace in order to promote their nefarious designs.

Talking to Dawn, he said, "I don't find words to condemn the murder of Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai whose whole family had a long history of services to Islam and was preaching peace and love to the people at large."

He said though no arrests had been reported, yet he had no doubts that the killers would be arrested soon. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Secretary-General of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) Maulana Fazlur Rahman appealed to the followers and students of Mufti Shamzai to be patient at this tragic moment.

Talking to newsmen from Dera Ismail Khan, the Maulana said that Mufti Sahib was a scholar of the highest calibre and a non-partisan personality who remained above sectarian considerations.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who was in Turkey, in a message released by his party, expressed shock over the killing and linked the murder of Maulana Shamzai to the international Zionist conspiracy against Islam, under which Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and Abdul Aziz Rinteesi of Hamas were also martyred.

He said that Zionists had planned to kill eminent Muslim scholars all over the world, and Mufti Shamzai's assassination was a part of that conspiracy. Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), described Mufti Shamzai's assassination a result of the overall collapse of law and order in the country.

This, he said, also reflected the fact that the government was deviating from its real duty and was diverting all its energies towards targeting and victimising its political rivals.

Senator Khurshid Ahmed of the MMA said, "I want to warn the nation and the parliament about a conspiracy that has been hatched by certain elements to fulfil their heinous political designs."