Blast at Taliban-linked Pakistani seminary kills six people, injures 20

Islamabad, Pakistan – A suicide bombing at a mosque in northwest Pakistan has claimed the lives of at least six people, including a prominent religious scholar, and at least 20 others, according to authorities.

In Akora Khattak, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the mosque is located inside the seminary for Darul Uloom Haqqania. According to police, the attack appeared to be directed at Jamiat Ulema Islam-Sami (JUIS) leader Hamid-ul-Haq shortly after Friday prayers had ended.

Zulfiqar Hameed, the provincial police chief, confirmed that the attacker was a suicide bomber in a press conference. He added that the attack left at least three police officers dead.

Officials from the government sent condolences to the victims’ families and condemned the attack.

According to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, “such cowardly and heinous acts of terrorism cannot stifle our resolve to combat terrorism.”

No organization claimed responsibility for the bombing, but analysts speculated that ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in Khorasan Province (ISKP) was responsible for it.

It is highly likely that ISKP carried out the attack because of the significance of this seminary and its history. According to Ihsanullah Tipu, a security analyst from Islamabad, the group has ideological disagreements with the Afghan Taliban and their supporters, who adhere to the Deoband school of thought.

A Deoband seminary called Darul Uloom Haqqania was established in 1947 under the leadership of Sami-ul-Haq, Hamid-ul-Haq’s father, who was frequently referred to as the “Father of the Taliban.” In a knife attack in Rawalpindi in 2018, Simi-ul-Haq was killed.

After his father passed away, Hamid-ul-Haq became the president of JUIS and served in his late 50s.

He had previously served as the seminary’s vice chancellor and led a group of religious scholars on a “religious diplomacy” trip to Afghanistan, where he met senior Taliban leader Abdul Kabir.

After the Taliban retakes control of Pakistan in August 2021, he had also demanded that Pakistan recognize it.

The seminary, which has more than 4, 000 students enrolled, also has the names of several well-known Afghan Taliban leaders as alumni, including interim foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and interim interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.

The Afghan Taliban practices Deoband and adheres to Sunni Islam. ISKP, a member of the Salafist school of thought, opposes it. The latter adheres strictly to Islamic law, which is frequently described as ultraconservative.

In recent years, mosques have been targeted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa several times. More than 100 people were killed, the majority of whom were police officers, in a mosque inside a police complex in Peshawar in January 2023.

ISKP has carried out numerous attacks in Pakistan, indiscriminately targeting civilians and security forces, despite no official organization taking responsibility for the Peshawar mosque attack.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district, a political rally organized by Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUIF), a rival faction of JUIS and a Deobandi adherent, was attacked in one of its larger attacks in July 2023. Nearly 60 people were killed in the bombing.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has an ideological affinity with the Afghan Taliban, has been the target of more attacks in the nation over the past few years. More than 1,500 people died in the nation as a result of these attacks last year.

The significance of the attack on the seminary and the murder of Hamid-ul-Haq was highlighted by Tipu, co-founder of The Khorasan Diary, a security research portal.

“This seminary has enticing historical ties to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The current Afghan rulers are actively cracking down on ISKP in their country, he said, adding that many of its students have engaged in combat with US and NATO forces there.

Tipu claims that the Afghan Taliban and ISKP are engaged in both ideological and operational battles. ISKP is referred to as “Takfiris,” which is those who have been excommunicated from Islam, by the Taliban.

Source: Aljazeera