Suicide bomb at a seminary in northwest Pakistan kills top cleric and 4
others ahead of Ramadan
[February 28, 2025]
By RIAZ KHAN
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up after walking
into a mosque within a pro-Taliban seminary in northwestern Pakistan on
Friday, killing a top cleric and four other worshippers and wounding
dozens of others ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan, according to
local police.
The blast occurred in Akora Khattak, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province, district police chief Abdul Rashid said.
He said Hamidul Haq, who is the head of a faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema
Islam (JUI) party, is also among the dead. Rashid said officers
transported the wounded to hospitals.
The slain cleric Haq is the son of Maulana Samiul Haq, known as the
“father of the Taliban,” who was killed in a knife attack at his home in
2018.
Haq’s family confirmed he was killed in Friday's attack and appealed to
his followers to remain peaceful. Haq was also in charge of the Jamia
Haqqania seminary, where many Afghan Taliban had studied in the past two
decades.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and
ordered authorities to provide the best possible treatment to the
wounded.
Zulfiqar Hameed, the provincial police chief, said Haq was the target of
the suicide bombing. No group has immediately claimed responsibility.
The attack came ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is
expected to start either on Saturday or Sunday subject to the sighting
of the crescent moon.
Hameed, the provincial police chief, said more than a dozen police
officers were guarding the mosque when the attack occurred, and Haq's
seminary also had its own security.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks in recent years.
As many as 101 people, mostly police officers, were killed in 2023 when
a suicide attack targeted a mosque in Peshawar, the capital of the
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
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A Pakistani mourns next to the caskets of the victims of bomb
explosion in a mosque within a pro-Taliban seminary, at a hospital
in Nowshera, a town in the Pakistan's northwestern Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Riaz Khan)
Pakistani authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, who are known
as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, for the previous most of the
attacks.
The TTP never claimed attacks on mosques, saying it does not target
places of worship. The TTP is a separate group but an ally of the Afghan
Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021 as
U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the
country after 20 years of war.
Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary and have even been
living openly in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, which also
emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.
Also on Friday, a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying
security forces in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, wounding
10 people, including two troops, police and officials said. No one
immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but previous attacks
have been blamed on separatists.
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan, which has for years been the scene
of a long-running insurgency. Separatists want independence from the
central government in Islamabad.
Although Pakistan says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in
Baluchistan has persisted.
___
Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar and Abdul Sattar contributed to
this story from Peshawar, Pakistan and Quetta, Pakistan.
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