Religious | Pakistan

JHELUM: Religious scholar and lecturer Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza survived an attack by on Sunday, police said. The attacker was killed in retaliatory firing. Mirza, known for delivering religious speeches on social media, has over 3.1 million followers on his YouTube channel. He was also attacked earlier this year, and previously survived an assassination attempt in Jhelum in March 2021. The religious scholar was outside the Quran & Sunnat Research Academy where he delivers lectures when a man carrying a 9mm pistol arrived at the premises, lay down on the ground, and opened fire, Jhelum police spokesperson Kashif Kiani told Dawn. Jhelum Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Chaudhry Shafiq said police fired back in retaliation, killing the attacker on the spot. He added that Mirza remained safe and unhurt during the attack and is continuing his lectures at the academy. Kiani confirmed that a policeman on the scholar’s security team was injured during the attack. The constable sustained a gunshot wound to hi...

DHAKA: Thousands of activists of Bangladeshi religious parties rallied in Dhaka on Saturday, one of their biggest public shows of strength in years. Religious groups have gained strength after the toppling of the iron-fisted regime of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, opposing attempts at reforms they say are un-Islamic. Hefazat-i-Islam — an influential group made up of multiple political parties, Muslim organisations and religious schools — issued a string of demands at Saturday’s rally, including the abolishment of a government women’s commission seeking equality. “Men and women can never be equal: the Holy Quran outlines specific codes of life for both genders,” said Mohammad Shihab Ud­din, 53, leader of a women’s mad­­rassa, a religious school. “There is no way we can go beyond that.” No date has been set for elections, but caretaker leader Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who heads the interim government, has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest. Muhammad Umar Faruq, 30, another...