Religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani survives knife attack

KARACHI: Prominent Islamic scholar Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani survived an assassination attempt after a man attempted to stab him with a knife.

According to reports, a man approached the religious cleric during Fajar morning prayers at his seminary in Korangi and said he wanted to speak to him for a few minutes in person.

Mufti Taqi Usmani agreed when suddenly the man pulled out a knife and attempted to stab him. However, his security guards pulled away the man and saved the cleric. The scholar was unhurt and survived the assassination attempt.

SSP Korangi said the suspect did not attack Usmani. He said the suspect had asked for a meeting with the scholar after Fajar prayers.  He confirmed that the unidentified suspect has been taken into custody and further investigation into the incident is underway. 

The SSP said the suspect revealed had tried to approach Usmani to seek his prayer over a personal matter and he carried the knife for safety purposes. He added that the suspect was a resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar. 

Muhammad Taqi Usmani is the Vice President and Hadith professor at Darul Uloom Karachi. He has written and lectured extensively on hadith, Islamic finance and other topics.

In March 2019, a guard and a driver were killed after attackers opened fire on Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani’s car at Nipa Chowrangi in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

In the same attack, Amir Shahab, the Khateeb of Baitul Mukkaram mosque, was injured. He was travelling along with his family in a car while another vehicle belonging to his close aide was following behind.

When they descended from the ramp while coming from Rashid Minhas Road towards University Road, four gunmen riding two motorcycles opened indiscriminate firing on his vehicle at NIPA (now NIM) roundabout.

Mufti Usmani survived the attempt on his life. However, his police guard, Mohammed Farooq, was critically wounded. The suspects also attacked the other car, resulting in bullet injuries to the driver, Sanober Khan, and a religious scholar, Maulana Amir Shahabuddin, belonging to the same seminary.