According to details, the incident occurred in Miranshah, close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where the influential cleric was targeted by unknown gunmen.
North Waziristan District Police Officer (DPO) confirmed that Nizami lost his life on the spot due to the gunfire. His body has been transferred to the Miranshah Hospital for necessary procedures, he added.
Authorities have initiated a thorough investigation into the incident, collecting evidence from the scene. Intensive monitoring is being conducted in the district to apprehend the perpetrators responsible for this heinous act.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in violence-related fatalities with 432 fatalities reported during the first quarter of 2024, stemming from 245 incidents of terror attacks and counter-terror operations, as revealed in a report released by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).
According to the report, the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan bore the brunt of this violence, accounting for over 92% of all fatalities and 86% of attacks during this period.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), commonly known as JUI (F), is a Deobandi political party in Pakistan. Established in 1945 as Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, it underwent a factional split in 1988, with the "F" standing for the name of its leader, Fazal-ur-Rehman.
Renowned as "the biggest religio-political party" in Pakistan, with considerable "proven street power" as of at least 2021, JUI (F) is primarily concentrated in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan, regions predominantly inhabited by Pashtuns
It emerged as the largest splinter group of the original JUI, which divided into two factions in 1980 due to disagreements over Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haq's support for Mujahideen outfits in the Afghanistan war.
The other faction, JUI-S, led by Samiul Haq, holds regional significance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Additional splinter groups include Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam Nazryati (JUI-N), which separated in 2007 but reunited with JUI (F) in 2016, and Rabita Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, led by Muhammad Khan Sherani, which broke away in 2020.
While officially registered with the Election Commission of Pakistan as "Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam", it is commonly referred to as "Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F)".
In recent months, a number of high-profile killings, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, have taken place under mysterious circumstances in Pakistan.
Nizami's death comes days after Luqman, also known as Mir Adil, a suspected member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group, was fatally shot by unidentified assailants in the Mamund area of Pakistan.
Earlier this year, Sheikh Jameel-ur-Rehman, a Tahreek-ul-Mujahdeen (TuM) commander, was found dead in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
On December 17, 2023, in a strikingly similar occurrence, Habibullah, a suspected member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, met his death when unidentified assailants ambushed and fatally shot him in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Interestingly, news of Habibullah's death emerged on the very day when unconfirmed reports circulated regarding Dawood Ibrahim, India's most-wanted fugitive, allegedly being hospitalized due to poisoning by unknown perpetrators.
