Shaheed Maulana Khanzeb of Bajaur: scholar, author and ANP leader

At a glance

• Shaheed Maulana Khanzeb (also written Khan Zeb; in Pashto خانزیب) was a religious scholar from Nawagai in Bajaur, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and a senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP). [3, 19, 29]

• He was the ANP's central secretary for ulema affairs and a member of its central cabinet. [4]

• He wrote two books in Pashto: a history of Bajaur, Bajaur Da Tarikh Pah Rana Ke (reviewed in The News in April 2021), and Shtamana Pakhtunkhwa (2024), on the natural resources of Pakhtunkhwa. [2, 18]

• In the months before his death he spoke on the province's mineral wealth and the new mines and minerals law at universities, mosques and seminaries, according to a columnist in The News on Sunday. [26]

• He and his police guard were martyred in Khar on 10 July 2025, when gunmen on motorcycles fired on their vehicle while he was campaigning for a peace march planned for 13 July. [3]

• No group claimed the killing, and no arrest had been reported by July 2026. In November 2025 the prime minister's office ordered a commission of inquiry under a Supreme Court judge. [3, 11, 17]

• No published report gives a birth date. A speaker at a memorial in Peshawar spoke of his "42 years" of life. [10]

A scholar from Nawagai

Khanzeb was born in the tehsil of Nawagai in Bajaur, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Tribal News Network, a regional news outlet, says his family belongs to the Salarzai-Shaykhan sub-tribe of the Tarkalani clan and has deep roots in the Char Mang and Nawagai areas. [19] He passed matriculation at Government High School Nawagai and finished the Dars-e-Nizami course in Islamic studies in 1999, according to the same profile, which names Sheikh-ul-Hadith Maulana Hassan Jan as his teacher. [19] The profile does not name the madrasa. No birth date appears in the published reports.

His family was already in the ANP. His elder brother, Sheikh Jehanzada, was an ANP provincial council member when Khanzeb was martyred, and a member of the party's central working committee a year later. [8, 17] Tribal News Network calls Jehanzada a former candidate for the National Assembly. [19] A column in The News adds that Khanzeb belonged to a well-off family and that his father chose him to study at a seminary. [20]

A cleric in a secular party

Tribal News Network calls the ANP secular and says his family's ties to it were old. [19] A columnist in The News, writing after his martyrdom, called him "an unusual cleric" and said he promoted the political philosophy of Bacha Khan (see Bacha Khan and the Khudai Khidmatgar movement), a secular, non-violent way of life and politics. [20] The columnist adds that he promoted religion together with non-violence and a turning away from extremism, and that he turned a barren hillside behind his house into a wooded slope where thousands of birds gathered. [20] That is the columnist's account. No recording or transcript of his speeches has been published that we could find.

In the party he held the office of secretary for ulema affairs and sat in the central cabinet. [4] Dawn calls him "an influential advocate for peace". [3] Daily Times says he had taken part in anti-extremism demonstrations with the Bajaur Peace Action Committee. [22] ANP spokesman Ihsan Ullah told Arab News that he "frequently spoke out against militants". [14]

Speakers at a memorial held at the Peshawar High Court later in 2025 added another cause. They said he had spoken for the district's mineral and natural resources to be used for the benefit of local people, and that he had paid for it. [10] At the first anniversary, ANP speakers summed up his positions as peace, Pashtun rights and control over local resources. [21] Those are tributes by his party and friends. They are not his own words.

Standing for the National Assembly

Khanzeb stood for the National Assembly seat NA-8 Bajaur for the ANP. Tribal News Network says he did so in "the 2023 general elections" and won 12,069 votes. [19] The year does not fit. A compilation of the constituency's results says the vote in Bajaur was suspended after the death of the independent candidate Rehan Zaib, that the election was held on 21 April 2024, and that Mubarak Zeb Khan won it. It lists a "Maulana Khan Zaib" among the candidates for the general election of 2024. [1] A columnist in The News on Sunday also places the contest in 2024 and says he won over 12,000 votes. [26] Neither figure has been checked against the Election Commission's own results.

The book on Bajaur

He launched a history of his home district in Pashto, Bajaur Da Tarikh Pah Rana Ke ("Bajaur in the light of history"). The News, reviewing it on 26 April 2021, said it ran to 438 pages in 16 chapters, that it was published under the auspices of Mafkoora, a private research institute in Peshawar, and that it traced the district back 4,000 years. [18]

The review describes what the book covers. It opens with the name: Khanzeb concluded that baaj means the tax paid on a share of the crop and warr means to give, so that Bajaur means "tax giver", because the valley's water grew many crops. [18] A third chapter deals with the remains of earlier civilisations, and the book also covers Buddhist sites and the passage of Alexander's army, as well as geography, administration, agriculture, minerals, climate and the Pakhtun tribes of the district, their traditions and traditional foods. [18] It retells the folktale of Sher Alam and Maimonai, which Khanzeb dates to about 1920, says was versified by about nine poets, and says reached its best-known form in Fida Mutawahir's version, sung by Fazle Rabi. [18] It also records Bacha Khan's visit to a mosque at Katkot in Mamond, where the book says he stayed forty days, and describes the shrines of Sufis and poets. [18]

He also wrote opinion pieces for Daily Shahbaz, Tribal News Network and Pakhtun Magazine, according to Tribal News Network's profile. [19] A third book, titled "Alternative Narrative" in the English report, was launched at his first anniversary. [17] Reports give neither its Pashto title nor its publisher.

Shtamana Pakhtunkhwa: the book on the province's resources

His second book was Shtamana Pakhtunkhwa (شتمنه پښتونخوا), which The News on Sunday and The Friday Times render as "Prosperous Pakhtunkhwa". [26, 28] Mafkoora, the Peshawar research centre that had published his history of Bajaur, issued it in 2024 in 184 pages, under the subtitle د پښتونخوا د قدرتى وسائلو علمى، سائنسى او سياسى لوست, which translates as a scholarly, scientific and political lesson on Pakhtunkhwa's natural resources. [2] Pakhtoon Magazine, a Peshawar monthly, says it has 33 chapters. [24]

No chapter list has been published, and the book itself is not available online, so what follows is what others say of it. The reviewer in Pakhtoon Magazine, Mukhtiar Hairan, says it records the wealth of Pakhtunkhwa that had until then been hidden from ordinary people and known only to a particular class, and that it leaves the common people to decide whether to keep going abroad for wage labour or to make their own land rich. [24] Urdu News reported that the book sets out the mineral deposits of every district of the province. [27] At Mafkoora's year-end meeting in December 2024, Prof Samimuddin Arman said the newly published book had drawn the notice of scholars and that more than a thousand copies had sold. [25]

Those who knew him describe the book as part of an argument about ownership. A columnist in The News on Sunday wrote that he pictured Pashtuns "not merely labourers extracting riches for others but rightful stakeholders". [26] Rizwan Mohmand, a former president of the Mohmand Students Union, told Urdu News that Khanzeb believed local people should have authority over their own resources so that they could progress. [27] The Friday Times counted the book among works that reflected his belief in development through dignity and respect. [28]

In 2025 he took the subject to audiences. The same columnist says he had become a familiar speaker at universities and colleges on the "Mineral Act", the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mines and minerals legislation then before the province, and that he then took the message to mosques and seminaries. [26] With the ANP MPA Muhammad Nisar Baaz he had started a study circle called Ranra ("light"), where they discussed peace and ways to bring prosperity to the region. [26] After his martyrdom, ANP leaders at a gathering in Chakdara called the new mines and minerals bill an attempt to roll back the 18th Constitutional Amendment and seize provincial rights; that is the party's reading. [7]

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government rejected that reading. Its Mines and Minerals Bill, 2025, was introduced in the provincial assembly on 4 April and presented as a legal framework to encourage investment in the mineral sector. [30] Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur called the criticism "mere propaganda" in a video message on 9 April, said the bill gave no provincial powers to the federal government or any other institution, and said its main aim was to crack down on illegal mining through a Mines and Minerals Force and oversight committees of cabinet members. [30] His finance adviser, Muzammil Aslam, said on 10 April that mines and minerals were a provincial subject, that royalties were increased by 400 per cent in last year's amendment, and that about 3,500 mines were not operating. [31] The information adviser, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, said the provincial law department drafted the bill, and that federal access would be needed only for strategic minerals such as uranium. [30] The law minister, Aftab Alam Afridi, said on 21 April that the federal government could send recommendations but the final decision would be the province's, and that there was "space for improvement" in the bill. [32]

Danger before July 2025

Tribal News Network's profile describes earlier attacks, and the details come from that single outlet. It says his house was shelled during Operation Sherdil and three women of his family were badly hurt, that militants launched two missile attacks on the house, one of which exploded about ten feet above him and left him with hearing loss for a week, and that he led the funeral prayer for the poet Islam Armani in defiance of a ban by militants. [19] It says he stayed in Bajaur through all of it. [19]

Bajaur in the summer of 2025

Bajaur had been the scene of repeated military operations since 2008, and speakers at a July 2025 rally called the district's law and order the worst since the operation of that year. [8] On 2 July an explosion in Sadigabad killed four people, among them the Nawagai assistant commissioner, Faisal Ismail, a tehsildar, a policeman and a passer-by. [3] Earlier in the year the home of the local National Assembly member, Mubarak Zeb Khan, had been attacked twice, once with an improvised explosive device. [4]

In that climate local politicians, elders, traders and peace activists planned a peace march for Sunday 13 July, scheduled about a week ahead, with the PML-N's Malik Gul Kareem Khan as chief convener. [8] Khanzeb was canvassing for it when he was killed. [3]

The attack of 10 July 2025

On Thursday 10 July Khanzeb and four companions were driving from Khar bazaar back towards Nawagai after canvassing for the march. [5, 6] Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on the vehicle. [3]

The reports differ on the place and the hour. Dawn's first report put it near the Nadra office on the main Khar to Inayat Kalley road at about 4:25 pm. [3] The first information report, as Dawn read it, put it near a petrol pump on the same road. [6] The Express Tribune, Arab News and Dawn's online report name the place as Shandai Mor, near the Khar tehsil headquarters. [4, 12, 14] Tribal News Network says it happened at Shandai Mor around 3 pm, and Aaj News speaks of the Nawagai area. [13, 19]

Khanzeb and his guard, Sherzada, a police constable, were martyred: both died of their wounds at the district headquarters hospital in Khar. [3] The three others in the vehicle were wounded. Dawn, quoting the rescue service, names them Usman Ali, Tariq Khan and Shah Sawar and says they were sent to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar in critical condition. [3] The Express Tribune names them Dr Tariq, Shah Sawar and Usman. [12]

District Police Officer Waqas Rafique called it a targeted killing. [3] He told Dawn that eyewitnesses saw five suspects on two motorcycles fire on the vehicle and that Khanzeb was the target. Police recovered 35 bullet casings and began geofencing two locations. [5] A case was registered at the Counter-Terrorism Department police station in Bajaur against unidentified attackers, on the complaint of the Khar station house officer, under the murder and attempted murder sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act's section on terrorism. [5, 6]

Who was responsible

No group had claimed the killing when the first reports came out. [3] No later claim appeared in the news reports either. The ANP's president, Aimal Wali Khan, blamed the state from the first day. He said the party would file a first information report against the state, and Dawn quoted him: "State institutions are complicit in this incident because they have maintained criminal silence." [4] At a press conference in Peshawar on the following Tuesday, he rejected claims that the Islamic State Khorasan group or the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan were involved, and said the state should ensure a transparent inquiry. [9] A columnist in The News wrote later that the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is active in Bajaur, had denied responsibility. [20] The denial itself does not appear in the news reports.

ANP leaders also raised the closed-circuit cameras. At the funeral the provincial president, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said the attackers shot Khanzeb in a public market full of cameras and asked why they were all removed after the murder. [16] Aimal Wali Khan also called the removal of the cameras a serious concern. [9] No police statement on the cameras has been reported.

Up to the first anniversary in July 2026, no report said that anyone had been arrested or charged. At the July 2025 rally, speakers said that authorities had yet to arrest anyone for killings in the district over several years. [8]

Reactions

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, ordered a report and the arrest of the shooters, saying "Those involved in the incident will not be able to escape the grip of the law." [4] The governor, Faisal Karim Kundi, condemned the attack. [12] Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called Khanzeb a "very fine soul, and a staunch advocate for peace" and the attack "cowardly". [15] The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan demanded "a swift and impartial inquiry". [4] Jamaat-e-Islami's Mushtaq Ahmed Khan also condemned the attack. [3]

The provincial ANP president, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, announced three days of mourning, suspended party activity and ordered black flags raised beside party flags. He said: "This attack is not only an attack on the Awami National Party but also on the Pashtun consciousness and peace." [4]

On the day, ANP workers and followers carried his coffin to a demonstration outside the Civil Colony in Khar. [3] Aaj News reported that a protest turned violent, that demonstrators attacked a security forces office, and that the forces used tear gas. [23]

Funeral and burial

Thousands attended his funeral prayers in Nawagai on Friday 11 July. [6] Dawn lists Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Sardar Hussain Babak, Mohammad Nisar Mohmand and the ANP member of the provincial assembly Mohammad Nisar Khan among them, with two PTI assembly members. [6] The Peshawar Post names the party's secretary general, Dr Salim Khan, as co-leading the prayer. [16] He was buried in his family's graveyard. [6]

Speakers called the killing an attempt to silence a bold voice for peace and blamed the government for failing to stop such attacks. [6] Babak said: "When you talk about peace, you will have to face bullets." [16] The constable Sherzada's funeral was held at the police lines in Khar that morning, and he was buried in Nawagai. [6]

On Saturday Aimal Wali Khan came to Nawagai with Jamaat-e-Islami's Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, the former chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and the ANP's Ghulam Ahmad Bilour. He called Khanzeb a committed peace activist and a loss to Pashtuns worldwide, and said such killings would not make the party give up its peace line. [7] Students and party workers held a funeral prayer in absentia that day at Shaheed Chowk in Timergara, Lower Dir. [7]

The march, the inquiry and the anniversary

The peace march went ahead on Sunday 13 July on the Khar to Nawagai road outside the Bajaur Sports Complex, near where Khanzeb had been martyred three days earlier. Dawn said it was believed to be the largest such gathering in the district, with people carrying white flags and photographs of Khanzeb and Rehan Zeb Khan. [8] Bazaars were closed across Bajaur. [8] Speakers called him the "champion and ambassador of peace" and warned of a larger protest in Islamabad if lawlessness did not end. [8]

The ANP then asked for a judicial commission led by the chief justice of Pakistan, with a member of Khanzeb's family on it, and threatened street protests and an appeal to the international community. [9] A condolence reference at the Peshawar High Court, organised by the Abdul Latif Lala Foundation, asked for an inquiry under a Supreme Court judge. [10] On 6 November 2025 the prime minister's office issued a notification directing the law ministry to put a summary to the federal cabinet for a single-member commission of inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge, to examine the circumstances of the death and "determine responsibility for the incident". [11] Aimal Wali Khan wrote that "now we hope to get justice from the Supreme Court of Pakistan". [11]

The first anniversary was marked on 10 July 2026 at the Bajaur Sports Complex. [17] The ceremony launched his book "Alternative Narrative", and a declaration was read out. Participants demanded that the prime minister's promised inquiry commission be set up at once. [17] Sheikh Jehanzada asked for it to be set up immediately and for its findings to be published. [21] No report since says whether the commission was constituted.