ISLAMABAD — 1000’s of mourners attended a funeral Saturday for a Pakistani Sunni Muslim cleric gunned down in broad daylight on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad, police and a spokesman for the cleric’s group mentioned.
The funeral of Masoodur Rehman Usmani was held a day after unidentified gunmen shot and killed him and wounded his driver within the neighborhood of Ghauri City, in response to a press release from Islamabad police.
Nobody claimed duty for the assault, which is a uncommon incidence on this a part of Pakistan. Police mentioned they have been utilizing closed-circuit TV footage to trace down the assailants, and vowed that they’d be arrested and dropped at justice.
Authorities in Islamabad have stepped up safety by deploying further police and a few embassies have been advising their nationals to keep away from visiting the world the place the funeral for Usmani was to be held.
Usmani was a deputy secretary on the Sunni Ulema Council, which emerged after Pakistan outlawed the Sipah-e-Sahaba extremist group, which has been accused of killing hundreds of Shiites in latest many years throughout the nation.
Sunni clerics of their speeches on the funeral requested the federal government to make sure the arrest of these answerable for Usmani’s killing. Prime cleric Ahmed Ludhianvi threatened a sit-in in Islamabad in the event that they weren’t arrested throughout the week.
The funeral was livestreamed on social media by organizers, who wished to carry the occasion exterior parliament. However police refused their request, and the occasion was as an alternative held in a busy industrial space in Islamabad.
Pakistan has suffered frequent sectarian violence between the bulk Sunni and minority Shiite teams, however authorities say it’s nonetheless unclear who was behind the killing, though mourners have been seen chanting slogans in opposition to Shiites and neighboring Iran, which is usually accused by Sunni teams of backing Shiite organizations in Pakistan.
Most Sunnis and Shiites reside collectively peacefully in Pakistan, although tensions have existed for many years.