On the sacred day of Eid-al-Adha, when Muslims worldwide gather in prayer and celebration, grief descended upon the village of Muski Anzarbad in Mir Ali, North Waziristan. Maulana Noor Rehman, a respected cleric known for his peace advocacy, was gunned down by unknown assailants outside his mosque. The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has strongly condemned the killing, accusing the Pakistan Army of orchestrating yet another targeted assassination of a prominent Pashtun voice.
The Pashtun National Jirga, a local court and rights forum allied with PTM, issued a scathing statement on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), calling the killing a “state-sponsored crime” aimed at silencing dissent within the marginalized Pashtun community. “Instead of the joy of Eid, the state has given the Pashtun people a gift of tears and sorrow,” the statement read. “Maulana Noor Rehman, who was a wise and peace-loving person, was martyred in a targeted assassination by the state.”
‘State injustice’ will be held accountable: Pashtuns
The Jirga emphasised that this act is part of a broader pattern of systemic violence against Pashtun leaders and community figures. “The person who used to preach peace from the mihrab of the mosque, today his body was lying on the funeral pyre. This is not the first time,” the statement continued. “These targeted killings, this state injustice and continued oppression will go down in history and will definitely be held accountable.”
The PTM and affiliated groups have long accused the Pakistani establishment, particularly the powerful military, of carrying out extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and other forms of state-sponsored repression against non-Punjabi ethnic communities, especially Pashtuns and Baloch.
This is not the first time such violence has marred religious celebrations. In previous years, both Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr have seen incidents of brutality reported in restive regions like North Waziristan and Balochistan, further fueling allegations of targeted ethnic and political oppression by state forces. The Pashtun and Baloch communities have often raised concerns over the worse than death condition of the communities on Eids.