By Gill Bikram Singh 
Gunmen Kill Mufti Shah Mir in Targeted Attack
A controversial Pakistani religious scholar, Mufti Shah Mir, accused of aiding Pakistan’s ISI in the kidnapping of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, was shot dead in Balochistan’s Turbat region on Friday night. According to local reports, Mir was ambushed by gunmen on motorcycles while leaving a mosque after night prayers. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds and succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.
Mir, a key figure of the fundamentalist party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), had survived two prior assassination attempts. Reports indicate that he was involved in arms and human trafficking under the guise of religious scholarship and had close ties with ISI and terror camps in Pakistan.
Escalating Violence in Balochistan
Mir’s killing comes amid rising violence in Balochistan, where armed attacks and enforced disappearances have intensified. Just last week, two members of his party were also killed in Khuzdar. The province has been a hotspot for deadly clashes, with security forces and militants suffering heavy casualties this year.
Kulbhushan Jadhav Case: A Long Diplomatic Standoff
Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer who had set up a business in Iran’s Chabahar, was abducted from the Iran-Pakistan border in 2016 and handed over to Pakistani authorities. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court in 2017—a ruling strongly opposed by India.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) intervened, halting his execution and instructing Pakistan to review his conviction while granting him consular access. However, India maintains that Pakistan’s legal measures have failed to ensure a fair trial.
The kidnapping of Jadhav was reportedly orchestrated by Pakistani operatives, with Mullah Omar Irani, a key member of Jaish al-Adl involved in the abduction, allegedly killed by ISI operatives in 2020.
Pakistan’s passage of a 2021 law allowing Jadhav to appeal his conviction was dismissed by India as inadequate, further straining diplomatic ties over the case.