Six killed in blast at mosque dubbed ‘College of Jihad’

Not less than six folks have been killed in a suicide assault at an Islamic seminary in northern Pakistan that has been described because the “College of Jihad”.

The blast occurred on the mosque throughout the Darul Uloom Haqqania, within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 55km (34 miles) from the northern metropolis of Peshawar.

Maulana Hamid ul-Haq, a distinguished cleric and the influential head of the varsity, is among the many useless. Police stated greater than 10 different folks had been injured.

The seminary has lengthy been related to the Taliban since a number of of its members, together with the group’s founder Mullah Omar, skilled there.

No one has claimed duty for the assault, which got here forward of the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

The explosion occurred after Friday prayers, in response to native police.

Haq’s son, Khuzaima Sami, informed the BBC that tons of had been current in the primary corridor on the time of the blast and that he feared there could be many casualties.

An investigation has been launched into the assault.

“Preliminary reviews recommend the blast occurred after Friday prayers as folks had been gathering to greet Hamid ul-Haq,” Abdul Rasheed, the district police chief, informed the AFP information company.

The seminary – the place clerics are taught – often known as a madrassa, is taken into account one of many area’s most famous spiritual academic establishments and is a crucial tutorial centre of the Deoband faculty of thought.

It has been known as the “College of Jihad” as a consequence of its notable alumni, together with Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founding father of the militant Haqqani Community, and his son Sirajuddin Haqqani.

Each males performed key roles in main the Taliban’s insurgency, first towards Soviet forces and later towards US and Nato forces, in Afghanistan.

Haq, 57, was the son of the influential Pakistani cleric Maulana Sami ul-Haq, extensively generally known as the “Father of the Taliban”.

He grew to become the seminary’s vice-chancellor after his father’s assassination in 2018, and the pinnacle of a faction of the spiritual Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) political occasion.

He additionally served as a member of the Nationwide Meeting of Pakistan from 2002 to 2007.

Haq’s father had longstanding ties with the Afghan Taliban’s management, together with Mullah Omar.

He was thought-about an influential determine in facilitating negotiations between the Taliban and the Pakistani authorities.

Regardless of their robust connections with the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, neither Haq nor his father had been instantly concerned in any anti-state actions.

As a substitute, they had been typically seen as intermediaries between Pakistan and the Taliban.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif condemned the assault, as did the Pakistani Taliban.

The group described Haq as a “preacher of reality, a compassionate instructor, and a fearless advocate for the steadiness of madrassas”.