PESHAWAR: The wife of radical Pakistani cleric Maulana Sufi Muhammad has died of shock, a few hours after the 92-year-old chief of a banned extremist outfit passed away here due to protracted illness, police said.
Muhammad, who fought against international forces in Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion, died on Thursday.
His wife Barkhanay Bibi, aged between 60-65 years, could not bear the shock of his death and passed away late Thursday night, police said. She was the third wife of Muhammad.
He married for the third time a few years ago after the death of his two wives.
Muhammad was the father-in-law of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief, Maulana Fazlullah, who led the rebellion against Pakistan Army from 2007 to 2009.
The cleric founded the extremist group, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), with an aim to enforce Sharia law in Pakistan in 1992.
The militant group took over much of Swat in 2007, despite being banned by then Pakistan president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf in January 2002.
Muhammad had termed Pakistan's Constitution "un-Islamic" and demanded enforcement of the Sharia law.
He had been imprisoned since his arrest when the final phase of a military operation against militants was launched in the Malakand region.
He was released from jail in January 2018 on health grounds.
A number of cases were registered against him.
However, in each case, witnesses against him had either died or could not be traced.