Suicide bomb at a seminary in northwest Pakistan kills top cleric and 5 others ahead of Ramadan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — 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 five 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, said district police chief Abdul Rashid. He named Hamidul Haq, who is the head of a faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI) party, as being among the dead. No group has immediately claimed responsibility.

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. He was also in charge of the Jamia Haqqania seminary, where many Afghan Taliban had studied in the past two decades.

Zulfiqar 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’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, which 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.

Yawar Zia, a police officer who was wounded in the attack, said he was on a security duty at the seminary when the attack occurred and splinters from the bomb hit him. He was transported to the Qazi Hussain Ahmed Hospital by ambulance.

“After offering prayer, Hamidul Haq was leaving the mosque to go home and as he reached the main gate, a powerful explosion occurred, and I fell to the ground, losing consciousness,” Zia told The Associated Press from his hospital bed.

Zahir Shah, a worshipper, said that hundreds of people were leaving the mosque after offering prayers when he heard a powerful blast. He said Haq, accompanied by guards, was heading to his home located within the seminary premises when the attack occurred.

Shah described a chaotic scene with blood and body parts scattered around, adding that the number of casualties could have been much higher had the bomber struck during the prayers.

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.

Pakistani authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, for previous attacks.

The TTP never claim 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.

Separately on Friday, a roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, wounding 10 people, including two soldiers, 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 continued.

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Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar and Abdul Sattar contributed to this story from Peshawar, Pakistan and Quetta, Pakistan.