...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
Fazl (JUI-F) chief
Maulana Fazlur RehmanDeobandi holy man, known as
Mullah Dieselduring the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
and has said that attacks on Ulema were disgraceful.
Azam Tariq, front man for the Mehsud Taliban, said the group condemned the attack and felt that those involved in similar incidents were against Learned Elders of Islam and Islam.
Tariq, who had previously also served as the TTP front man under former Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud who was killed in a US drone strike on November 1, 2013, said that Khan Said Sajna was still the Ameer of the Taliban's Mehsud faction and that members of the group were united under his command.
Earlier on Thursday, at least two people were killed and dozens had been injured when a suspected jacket wallah detonated his explosives outside a JUI-F rally in Quetta.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman remained unhurt in the attack which targeted his bullet-proof vehicle. The banned krazed killer group Jundallah grabbed credit for the attack.