Bomb experts are still looking into the attack, which the provincial police chief believes seems to be a suicide bombing. As of yet, no group has taken accountability.
Prior to the fasting month of Ramadan, a huge bomb detonated at a mosque within a pro-Taliban seminary in northwest Pakistan on Friday, killing a prominent cleric and four other worshippers while injuring scores more, according to local authorities.
According to local police chief Abdul Rashid, the explosion happened in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Akora Khattak district.
Hamidul Haq, the leader of a Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI) party group, is also among the dead, he said. According to Rashid, the deceased and injured are being taken to hospitals while police conduct an investigation.
Maulana Samiul Haq, dubbed the “father of the Taliban”, was assassinated in a knife attack at his residence in 2018 and is the father if the deceased cleric Haq.
Haq’s family urged his supporters to maintain their composure and announced that he was killed in the attack on Friday. Many Afghan Taliban had attended the Jamia Haqqania seminary under Haq’s leadership throughout the previous 20 years.
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, denounced the incident and directed officials to heal the injured as best they could.
No group took ownership
The provincial police commander, Zulfiqar Hameed, stated that although the attack appears to have been a suicide bombing, experts in bomb disposal are still looking into it. Not a single group has taken quick responsibility. According to Hameed, the attack was directed against Haq.
According to regional police commander Hameed, Haq’s seminary has its own protection and around a dozen police officers were on duty at the mosque at the time of the incident.
The number of attacks in Pakistan has increased recently. In 2023, a suicide bombing on a mosque in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killed up to 101 individuals, the majority of whom were police personnel.
The majority of the previous attacks have been attributed by Pakistani officials to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
