Claim: Siraj-ul-Haq is the first Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer (leader) to face an assassination attempt, but no organisation has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, according to Daily Jang Akhbar.
Fact: Former Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer (leader) Qazi Hussain Ahmad was attacked in Mohmand in November 2012.
On 20 May 2023, Daily Jang Akhbar, Pakistan’s largest newspaper, published an article with the headline سراج الحق جماعت اسلامی کے پہلے امیر ہیں جن پر خودکش حملہ ہوا [Translation: Siraj-ul-Haq is Jamaat-e-Islami’s first Ameer (leader) to have faced a suicide attack.]
The article goes on to explain how the attack took place and claims that although no other organisation has accepted responsibility so far, Siraj-ul-Haq is the first JI leader to have faced such an attack. The article also recalls a similar incident from 2014 when Maulana Fazal ur Rahman of Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islami was attacked in Quetta.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check found this claim to be false. Siraj-ul-Haq is not the first Ameer (leader) of Jamaat-e-Islami to have encountered a suicide attack.
A Dawn article from 19 November 2012 reports a similar suicide attack on the former leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, in Peshawar. The article explains that the attack took place in the morning and although Ahmad remained safe, four other workers of Jamaat-e-Islami were injured.
This was also reported by DW, Dawn English, Express Tribune, and Pakistan Today, among many others.
It is clear that Siraj-ul Haq was not the first Jamaat-e-Islami leader to have escaped a suicide attack.
Virality
The tweet was shared with 1,075,997 followers.
We also found the same claim shared by the Daily Jang’s Facebook page here.
Conclusion: Siraj-ul-Haq is not the first Jamaat-e-Islami leader to have faced a suicide attack.
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