Munir Shakir
Munir Shakir was a Pakistani Islamic scholar and former militant leader, who was the founder of Lashkar-e-Islam and a strong critic of state oppression and injustices against Pashtuns.
He actively participated in Pashtun Tahafuz Movement gatherings, including the Pashtun National Jirga in Khyber.
In December 2024, Shakir, along with Mufti Kifayatullah Swati, led a delegation of the Pashtun Jirga to Kurram District to mediate a Shia–Sunni conflict between two groups of Pashtun tribes.
Shakir was assassinated by a bomb planted outside a Peshawar mosque on 15 March 2025.Radio ministry
Shakir was born in 1969. His early education was at a school in Mokhi Zai. During his religious studies at Karbogha Sharif near Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|Thall], he was mentored by his cousin, Maulana Syed Mukhtaruddin Shah, a respected cleric. Originally from the Kurram Valley, Shakir became known after he moved to Bara Tehsil, Khyber Agency, where he established an FM pirate radio station. Using this vehicle, he began to promote his religious beliefs, based in Deobandi theology. Among his more controversial pronouncements was his alleged statement that opium is halal, provided it is produced and used for medical purposes.
Shakir worked in Kurram Agency until 2004.In 2005, Akhundzada Saif-ur-Rahman Mubarak, a supporter of the more moderate Hanafi school of Islam, established his own FM pirate radio station to compete with Shakir's station. Rivalry between the two clerics increased, causing tribal elders to denounce the two in December 2005 for fomenting sectarian tension. Both clerics then went into hiding, with Shakir handing control of his radio station and Lashkar-e-Islam organization to Mangal Bagh. The hostilities peaked around 29 March 2006, when "hundreds" of Shakir's followers gathered in the Badshahkili neighborhood of Bara tehsil to attack Rahman's followers.In 2004, Shakir founded the organization Lashkar-e-Islam. Shortly thereafter, he was ejected from Bara Tehsil, and turned over control of the organization to local driver Mangal Bagh. In 2008, the organization was banned.Later activities
Shakir held a position with Ishaat-e-Tauheed, but disassociated from the group six to seven years before he died. He embraced the teachings of the Ahl-e-Quran movement and wrote books in which he argued that fabricated hadiths altered the true essence of Islam and that the Quran alone defined the true teachings of Islam. At the Pashtun National Jirga, he delivered a speech that condemned the Pakistani government's role in regional conflicts.Assassination
Shakir was killed in a bombing outside a mosque in Ormur, Peshawar, on 15 March 2025.