Outfit behind Police Lines attack rears its head again

THE proscribed Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA) has reared its head again in Peshawar, two years after perpetrating a major attack on the city’s police headquarters.

Though Monday’s attack hasn’t been claimed by the terror outfit so far, observers point to social media chatter that indicates JuA was involved.

A similar suicide attack targeting Peshawar police in January 2023, which claimed more than 80 lives, was also claimed by the JuA.

These recent attacks show that the militant outfit has retained its deadly reach, despite the mysterious killing of its leader, Abdul Wali aka Omar Khalid Khorasani, in a car bomb attack in August 2022 in Afghanistan. Khorasani had formed this outfit in 2014 after his split from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, but both groups joined hands in 2024.

Sweden-based security researcher Abdul Sayed, who studies armed groups in South and Central Asia, told Dawn that the JuA founder belonged to the Safi tribe of Mohmand district and had previously been involved in militancy in Afghanistan and Kashmir through the Harkatul Mujahideen platform. In 2007, he became a founding member of the TTP, but formed his own group in 2014.

The researcher said Khorasani was killed in August 2022, along with three associates, in a mysterious explosion in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. “JuA attributes responsibility for his killing to the current TTP leadership. In this regard, a statement was (also) issued in 2024 by Ghazi Media, a pro-JuA outlet,” he said.

Mr Sayed said the majority of JuA commanders came from the Mohmand district, adding that since many individuals from Mohmand are settled in Peshawar and other cities, this factor may account for the greater activity of their network in Peshawar.

He said that in March 2024, the TTP announced reconciliation with the JuA and assigned important positions to its members. However, in January 2025, a dispute between the two surfaced in the media. Although no formal separation occurred, when the TTP announced its appointments for 2025 in February, no significant positions were allocated to the JuA.

He said that although the JuA did not formally claim responsibility for the Peshawar attack, observers argued that the group was involved, as indicated by statements on its social media accounts.

According to the researcher, in this respect, it constitutes the eighth major attack by the JuA since November 2022, involving twelve suicide attackers. It may be noted that the JuA did not officially claim responsibility for the Islamabad courts attack or the latest Peshawar attack.

Mr Sayed said that JuA was presently headed by Umar Mukarram Khorasani. However, he said that Mukarram rarely issued statements on key occasions and mostly stayed away from the media

He said that Mukarram was also featured in a video with Sarbakaf Mohmand in 2023, when they claimed multiple major suicide attacks.

In addition, Mukarram was part of the TTP leadership council, representing the JuA.

On Sarbakaf, he said that the militant was like the group’s second-in-command, although this was not officially declared but was evident from his influence and media appearances.

On the other hand, the Peshawar FC has remained a target of several devastating attacks over the course of two decades.

On August 4, 2010, the then commandant of the paramilitary force, Safwat Ghayur, was martyred in a suicide attack at a busy intersection at a stone’s throw from the FC HQ.

In March 2013, then-FC commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat, on his way to the HQ, narrowly escaped a suicide attack near a military check-post on Fakhr Alam Road in Peshawar Cantonment.

The most devastating attack targeting this paramilitary force took place in May 2011 when two suicide bombers targeted the fresh FC recruits outside Shabqadr FC training centre, the largest training facility of the force in the province. The attack had left more than 90 recruits dead.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2025

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Header Image: Members of the forensic team collect evidence from a site after suicide bombers targeted FC headquarters in Peshawar on November 24. — Reuters

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