Suicide bomber assassinates anti-Taliban cleric Mufti Sarfaraz Naeemi and six others in Lahore

Source : Daily Times; The News, June 13, 2009.

Seven persons, including a prominent anti-Taliban cleric, were killed and seven injured when a suicide attacker detonated himself at the Jamia Naeemia madrassa (seminary) in the Garhi Shahu area of Lahore shortly after Friday prayers on June 12, 2009. Daily Times reported that in targeting Sarfaraz Naeemi, the head of Jamia Naeemia, the terrorist reportedly waited until the anti-Taliban cleric had reached his office before launching the attack. Six people were with Naeemi in his office at the time. Naeemi’s brother Muhammad Tajwar told AP the cleric had recently received death threats for condemning the Taliban, but had refused the offer of Police protection. According to The News, Naeemi was one of those moderate clerics who believed in maintaining sectarian unity to counter terrorism, and was among those clerics who had issued the edict declaring suicide attacks against the Muslims and civilians as Haram (forbidden).