Charsadda – The killing of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) provincial council member Hafiz Maulana Abdul Salam Arif in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda district on November 04 has sparked a fresh wave of online disinformation, with Taliban-linked and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) affiliated accounts attempting to frame the assassination as a state-backed operation. Pakistani officials have rejected these claims as a coordinated propaganda effort aimed at fueling sectarian and political discord.
According to police, Abdul Salam was returning home after offering prayers at a mosque when two unidentified motorcyclists opened fire, killing him on the spot. Investigating Officer Safdar Khan confirmed that forensic teams have collected evidence and that the inquiry continues to consider multiple possibilities, including local disputes and militant-linked targeting. The victim’s son has lodged an FIR at the Mandani police station.
Abdul Salam was a respected cleric, heading Madressah Abu Bakar Siddique in Tehsil Tangi and serving as a preacher in the Jamalabad Dairy Farm area. His assassination follows the killing of Awami National Party figure Maulana Khan Zeb in Bajaur earlier this year, adding to a troubling rise in targeted attacks on clerics and community leaders across KP.
Propaganda and Regional Context
The incident quickly became the focus of online messaging campaigns. Within hours, pro-Taliban and TTP-affiliated accounts began circulating claims that Pakistani intelligence agencies were behind the killing. Later, today, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid issued a condolence statement referring to the killing as a “brutal martyrdom.” Analysts note that the statement aligned closely with messaging already being pushed by TTP-linked accounts, rather than with formal diplomatic engagement channels.
Security officials note that these same networks routinely avoid acknowledging the TTP’s long-standing record of assassinating religious scholars aligned with democratic politics. JUI-F leaders targeted in the past include Maulana Merajuddin (Tank, 2010), Haji Khan Afzal (Hangu, 2009), and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who survived two assassination attempts in Swabi and Charsadda in 2012. The TTP’s animosity toward the JUI-F escalated after the party strengthened its parliamentary role post-2008. In January 2023, over 100 people, mostly police personnel, were killed in a TTP-linked suicide bombing at Peshawar Police Lines.
Analysts say the propaganda push coincides with heightened Pakistan–Afghanistan tensions, where Islamabad asserts that TTP leadership continues to operate from Afghan safe havens in violation of the Doha Agreement and the October 2025 Istanbul ceasefire framework. Since the ceasefire activation on October 19, Pakistan has intercepted multiple cross-border infiltration attempts, eliminating over 100 militants in intelligence-led operations.
Officials warn that attempts to politicize the killing risk inflaming sectarian divides and hindering the investigation. “This is a domestic security matter that must proceed on evidence, not orchestrated narratives,” a senior security source said. The official added that the recent messaging push reflects “a broader pattern in which Afghan Taliban-linked networks attempt to shape political perception inside Pakistan, whether during TLP-led unrest, PTI-related street instability, or in the aftermath of targeted attacks on clerics, while simultaneously suppressing and detaining scholars belonging to Salafi circles within Afghanistan itself.”
