Who was Sheikh Hakeemullah Bajauri?

TTP senior religious figure assassinated in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar

On June 18, several accounts affiliated with Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) reported the death of a member of their group belonging to the Malakand chapter of the organization, Sheikh Hakeemullah Bajauri. His body was recovered in Asadabad area of Kunar province, Afghanistan eastern province. While no group claimed his assassination, Sheikh Hakeemullah had disappeared the first day of Eidul Azha, and as maintained by TTP members, he had been kidnapped and subsequently killed by elements affiliated with the Pakistani state in Kunar.

Sheikh Hakeemullah was a prominent religious figure among TTP members from Bajaur tribal district, and was currently serving as senior member of the Shura (council) of Malakand shadow province of the TTP. According to a document published by the TTP in early 2024, Sheikh Hakeemullah was among the seven members who were part of the Shura under the leadership of Malakand shadow governor and senior TTP member Mawlana Azmatullah Mehsud, a veteran TTP founding member. In Afghanistan, Sheikh Hakeemullah was head of madrassa Manbah ul Uloom, located in Kunar province, where he used to teach religious subjects to locals and to TTP family members. He had achieved the status of Sheikh ul Hadith and also was an Hafiz, having memorized the Holy Quran.

Sheikh Hakeemullah was a native of Salarzai area of Bajaur tribal district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. His father was also killed in Kunar during an operation carried out by US and Afghan republican security forces. Since 2007, Sheikh Hakeemullah had been an affiliate of Afghan Taliban and TTP, working in Bajaur to exercise religious activities in line with Afghan Taliban’s ideology, gathering support for the Taliban. Subsequently, he moved to Afghanistan, where he was later captured by Afghan security forces and where he spent around nine years in the prison of Bagram, where many TTP and Afghan Taliban members were being held. Eventually, he was freed after August 15, 2021, with the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, when several TTP members were released from the prisons of Pul-e-Charkhi and Bagram. While in prison, Sheikh Hakeemullah used to preach to other inmates and allegedly was able to recruit new members to the TTP from both Afghan and Pakistani prisoners.

Some TTP members accused Afghan Taliban member Haji Usman Turabi, former governor of Kunar and current police chief of Kapisa province, of conspiring against and assassinating Sheikh Hakeemullah. Retaining family links between Kunar and Bajaur, Usman Turabi is a prominent and controversial Afghan Taliban figure who is held in high esteem by Afghan Taliban for his involvement in defeating Islamic State Khorasan (ISKP) in Nangarhar province in 2019. Usman Turabi is also close to Pakistan’s religious political party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). However, some TTP members particularly from Bajaur and Swat areas accuse him of having worked with the Pakistani state on multiple occasions. Usman Turabi had been previously appointed as governor of Kunar in 2021, but was later dismissed from the position due to malcontent from both local population as well as from TTP members living in Kunar, many of whom are from Bajaur and Swat areas. As a result of his activities against ISKP, Usman Turabi is also most wanted by ISKP, which in the past years tried to assassinate him on multiple occasions, succeeding in killing only his guards and personal commanders in Bajaur, where he frequently travels.

At the same time, some TTP members requested the intervention of Afghan Taliban authorities to solve the issue, specifically referring to a number of mysterious assassinations carried out in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces targeting TTP members. A number of TTP social media accounts also argued that Afghan Taliban should move to secure bases to TTP and Al-Qaida members in Afghanistan; protect religious scholars and influential leaders, either part of or sympathetic to the TTP; and provide a stable solution and settle the families of TTP and Al-Qaida members who migrated to Afghanistan.