Pakistani 'Scholar' behind Kulbhushan Jadhav kidnapping shot dead

Balochistan: Unidentified gunmen in Balochistan on Friday night shot dead the Pakistani ‘scholar’, Mufti Shah Mir.

Shah Mir reportedly helped Pakistan's ISI spy agency kidnapping former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav from Iran in 2016, NDTV reported.

Shah Mir was leaving a local mosque in Turbat after night prayers when gunmen attacked him arriving on motorcycles.

A member of the fundamentalist party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Shah Mir was shot multiple times at point blank range. He died at the hospital on Friday.

Shah Mir, who was a leading religious scholar in Balochistan, had survived two previous attempts on his life, according to reports.

It is reported citing The Times of India that Mir worked as an arms and human trafficker under the cover of a scholar.

Alongside being close to ISI, he reportedly often visited terror camps in Pakistan as well as helped terrorists infiltrate into India.

Last week, two members of his party were shot dead in Balochistan’s third largest city of Khuzdar.

The province is seeing spate of violence with the state forces reportedly carrying out forced disappearance of civilians, journalists and politicians.

Kulbhushan Jadhav is on death row in Pakistan after a military court convicted him of spying in 2017, which India condemned accusing Pakistan of denying him fair trial.

In 2019, Jadhav’s execution was halted after the International Court of Justice urged Pakistan to review the conviction and grant him consular access, according to the report.

Jadhav was running a business in Iran's Chabahar following premature retirement from the Navy when he was kidnapped from near the Iran-Pakistan border.

Jadhav was handed over to the Pakistan army and he is currently in a Pakistani prison.