Suicide blast tears through Akora Khattak seminary – Newspaper

• Maulana Samiul Haq’s son, Hamidul Haq Haqqani, among six killed; 18 injured in bombing following Friday congregation
• Darul Uloom Haqqania is considered alma mater of ‘Haqqani Network’ members, including current Afghan interior minister
• No group claims responsibility, Afghan Taliban accuse IS-K of being behind brazen attack

PESHAWAR: Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani — son of Maulana Samiul Haq and chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-S) — was among six people who perished in a suicide attack at the Darul Uloom Haqqani in Nowshera district, on Friday.

The suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body after the Friday congregation, leaving another 18 people injured.

“Maulana Haq was leaving the seminary for his home after prayers when he was targeted by the suicide bomber,” KP Police Chief Zulfiqar Hameed told Dawn.

Three police personnel are also among the injured, Mr Hameed said, adding that the personnel were deployed to provide security to Mr Haq.

He said that over a year ago, the Haqqania seminary had received threats, prompting deployment of 20 police personnel, with 17 for the protection of the seminary premises. An investigation into the attack has been launched, he added.

A senior JUI-S leader and Mr Haq’s close confidant, Maulana Yousaf Shah, however, claimed that the JUI-S leader had never shared any information regarding threats to his life.

He said he spoke to Mr Haq on Thursday, but the latter did not speak of any concerns regarding his security. “Those who targeted him are the enemies of the religion,” Mr Shah told Dawn over the phone from Saudi Arabia.

Eye-witnesses said that the suicide bomber had reached the gate used by Maulana Haq to leave the mosque, adding that the explosion took place after the prayers, when the Maulana was exiting to go home.

“The suicide bomber was dressed as a religious scholar. He arrived at the gate just as the Maulana was leaving the mosque and detonated the explosives,” said Muhammad Mudassar, a local resident.

In the wake of the blast, emergency was declared in local hospitals, including the district’s main medical teaching institute Qazi Hussain Ahmad Medical Complex, Nowshera.

An official report shared by the hospital director said six persons were killed in the explosion, with two being pronounced ‘dead on arrival’. According to the report, an 11-year-old child was also among the 15 injured brought to the hospital.

The Haqqani moniker

A former member of the National Assembly from 2002 to 2007, Maulana Haq took over as party chief after his father, an influential religious scholar and a former senator, was stabbed to death at his residence in Rawalpindi in November 2018.

Often dubbed a ‘Jihad University’ by the Western media, the Darul Uloom Haqqani counts key Taliban figures among its alumni. Founded in 1947, the seminary is located about 60km east of the provincial capital of Peshawar, on the Grand Trunk Road in Nowshera district

While the seminary’s leadership has maintained a low profile of late, its former head Maulana Samiul Haq, was its most active and vocal leader, both in local and cross-border geo-politics vis a vis Afghanistan.

He was often dubbed the “Father of the Afghan Taliban” since many of the key members of that dispensation were his students and protégés. Leading figures of the Haqqani group — including its head Jalaluddin Haqqani, his sons Sirajuddin Haqqani (the current interior minister of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan), Anas Haqqani and Ibrahim Haqqani – are all graduates of the Darul Uloom, and use the moniker ‘Haqqani’ to signify their connection to Akora Khattak.

However, when trouble came to the border regions in the wake of the US-launched war on terror at the turn of the millennium, Mr Samiul Haq kept his distance from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Paki­stan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban faction which challenged the state writ and were often behind violent acts and attacks in the region.

He also favoured the anti-polio vaccination campaigns, which the TTP often resisted by attacking the polio staff and the security officials deployed with them.

IS-K and Afghan Taliban rivalry

Abdul Mateen Qani, the spokesman for the interior ministry in Kabul, said the government “strongly condemn the attack” and blamed it on the militant Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) group.

Although no group has come forward to accept responsibility for the attack, the IS-K’s historic attitude towards the seminary and its leadership is noteworthy.

Over the past decade or so, the IS-K has emerged as a militant player in Pak­istan’s border areas and Afghanistan. Calling Mau­lana Haq and the Darul Uloom Haqqania supporters of the Afghan Taliban, it had recently warned of targeting Haq and those who supported them.

According to Iftikhar Firdous, founder and editor of The Khorasan Diary, IS-K had consistently named Maulana Haq and Darul Uloom Haqqania as Pakistan’s “extended hand” within Afghanistan in several publications.

“A video shared by IS-K on February 23 mentioned Maulana Haq and the Darul Uloom Haqqania as Pakistan’s Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan and threatened to target them and those who supported them,” Mr Firdous said.

On December 11, 2024, Afghan Taliban’s acting minister for refugees, Khalil Rahman Haqqani, and six other people were killed in an explosion in the Afghan capital Kabul. The Taliban spokesperson said in a statement that Khalil had been killed by the banned Islamic State militant group.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2025