Death toll in Pakistan seminary blast rises to eight

Peshawar: The death toll in the suicide bombing during Friday prayers at a seminary in northwest Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has risen to eight, including a top cleric, police said.

The blast, which claimed the life of Hamidul Haq Haqqani, chief of his faction of the Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) and caretaker of the Madrassa-e-Haqqania, located in Akora Khattak town of Nowshera district, left 17 others injured ahead of the fasting month of Ramazan, Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah confirmed.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IGP Zulfiqar Hameed said Hamid ul Haq Haqqani was the sole target of the bombing.

The attack occurred as Hamid ul Haq was heading home with his companions when the suicide bomber struck a gate of the mosque through which he would enter his residence, the official said.

The blast comes after the cleric had received threats at a conference of the Islamic Scholars Association, wherein he said preventing girls' education was against Islamic teachings, security sources said.

Sources also said the masterminds of the attack were identified and an action was being taken against them.

However, they have no connection with any religious institution, the security sources said.

Born in 1968, Hamidul ul Haq became chief of his JUI (Sami Group) after the death of his father Maulana Sami ul Haq.

The Darul Uloom Haqqania madrassa propagates the Hanafi Deobandi school of Sunni Islam. Maulana Abdul Haq founded the madrassa along the lines of the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary in India, where he had taught. It has been dubbed the “University of Jihad” due to its methods and content of instruction, along with the future occupations of its alumni.

Several leading members of the Taliban, including former chief Akhtar Mansour, studied here.