Twin Attacks Rock Gilgit, Cleric and Judge Targeted Amid Rising Tensions
Gilgit was on edge Sunday after unidentified gunmen staged two coordinated attacks, targeting a senior religious leader and a high-ranking judge in the mountainous region of Gilgit-Baltistan. The assaults, which left five people injured, shuttered businesses, blocked roads, and revived long-standing suspicions about the forces behind such violence.
The first attack unfolded near the Police Headquarters, where gunmen opened fire on Maulana Qazi Nisar Ahmed, the Ameer of Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat. The cleric was injured along with his driver and two security guards, though officials later confirmed their condition as stable. Hours later, another group of assailants fired on the vehicle of Chief Court Judge Malik Inayat ur Rehman near City Hospital. The judge escaped unhurt, but his car was riddled with bullets.
“No one will be allowed to disrupt peace in Gilgit-Baltistan,” vowed Interior Minister Shams Lone, promising the attackers would be “tracked down and made an example of.”
Yet locals remain skeptical. Over the years, assailants who have targeted prominent figures like Qazi Nisar have rarely, if ever, been identified or arrested. Residents and civil society groups accuse shadowy agencies and their recruits of orchestrating such attacks, alleging that the true aim is to pit Sunni and Shia communities against each other; especially whenever the two sects unite to demand fundamental rights. Authorities, however, have never formally addressed these claims.
In the wake of the shootings, protests erupted across Gilgit. Roads were blocked, intercity traffic between Gilgit and Islamabad was suspended, and demonstrators demanded immediate accountability. Social media platforms filled with condemnation, with youth leaders and activists calling for lasting peace and warning against attempts to divide the city along sectarian lines.
Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan and Governor Syed Mehdi Shah denounced the violence as a “conspiracy to destabilize peace” and ordered security forces to hunt down those responsible. Police later reported that the attackers abandoned two vehicles before fleeing the scene.
For Gilgit-Baltistan, a region accustomed to both political marginalization and fragile sectarian balance, the twin attacks have once again laid bare fears of engineered instability.
