PESHAWAR: Maulana Samiul-Haq, known as the “Father of the Taliban” for having taught some of the Afghan movement’s leaders, was found killed on Friday in a Pakistani city, a relative and his deputy said.
Unknown attackers killed the scholar, his deputy Yousaf Shah said. There were conflicting reports of exactly how he was killed and why his bodyguard and driver were apparently not there to defend him at the time of the attack. Shah initially said that Haq had been shot dead. Haq’s nephew Mohammad Bilal said his uncle was found with stabbing and gunshot wounds in a house he owns in an upscale area on Islamabad’s outskirts. “When the assailants entered his house ... They first started hitting Mullah Samiul-Haq with knives and daggers and then shot him dead,” he said.
Further details remained unclear.
Haq has run the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghanistan border, for decades. One of his students from the 1980s, known later as Mullah Mohammad Omar, went along with classmates to Afghanistan to join mujahideen groups fighting against the Soviet occupation of the country.
Renowned cleric assassinated in Pakistan city
Renowned cleric assassinated in Pakistan city
- Haq has run the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghanistan border, for decades
