The police chief of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has confirmed that Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, head of the Haqqania Madrassa in Akora Khattak, has died in hospital from severe injuries sustained in an explosion.
The blast occurred on Friday during Friday prayers at the Haqqania Madrassa, killing at least five people and injuring several others. Hamidul Haq Haqqani, son of the late Maulana Samiul Haq Haqqani, was the primary target of the attack.
As of now, no group has claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack, offering condolences to the victims’ families and calling for swift action to identify and punish the perpetrators.
Situated about 60 miles from the Afghanistan border, the Haqqania Madrassa has long been associated with the Taliban. The madrassa has trained numerous Taliban leaders, and its officials have previously expressed pride in the group’s control over Afghanistan.
Hamidul Haq Haqqani, often referred to as the “spiritual father of the Taliban,” had openly urged the former Afghan government to surrender so the Taliban could implement Sharia law. The previous Afghan administration had called on Pakistan to shut down the madrassa due to its promotion of extremist ideologies.
Following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, senior Taliban officials visited the Haqqania Madrassa and met with its religious leaders.
In early 2024, Hamidul Haq Haqqani led a delegation of Pakistani clerics to Kabul, where they met with Taliban officials, including Maulawi Abdul Kabir, then the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister for Political Affairs. Reliable sources confirmed that Abdul Kabir pledged financial support to the madrassa. A memorandum from his office instructed the Taliban’s Ministry of Finance to transfer seven million Afghanis to the madrassa’s account.
Reacting to Hamidul Haq Haqqani’s death, Rahmatullah Nabil, former head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, described him as “a human being in the guise of the devil,” adding, “He and his father were both merchants of death!”
