https://arab.news/rcfh2
- Darul Uloom Haqqania is Pakistan’s largest Islamic seminary and alma mater of several Afghan Taliban leaders
- Blast occurred when large number of worshippers had gathered for Friday prayers at seminary located in Akora Khattak
ISLAMABAD: Several people were injured in a blast at a religious seminary in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a rescue official said on Friday.
Darul Uloom Haqqania is the country’s largest Islamic seminary and the alma mater of several Afghan Taliban leaders. The blast at the seminary occurred when a large number of worshippers had gathered at a mosque inside the building located in the town of Akora Khattak in KP’s Nowshera district.
“Upon receiving the information, six ambulances of Rescue 1122 along with medical teams and fire team reached the spot,” a Rescue 1122 spokesperson told Arab News. “According to initial reports, several people were injured in the explosion.”
He said the injured included former member of the National Assembly, Maulana Hamidul Haq, who is the administrator of the seminary and chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S) party. His father Sami ul Haq is widely referred to as the ‘Father of the Taliban.’
Local media reported that at least five people were killed in the explosion, but Arab News could not confirm this.
The Darul Uloom Haqqania university is widely believed to be a launching pad for the Taliban movement in the 1990s and is still often described as the incubator for militants, though the seminary denies the claims. Mullah Mohammed Omar, who founded the Taliban movement following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, was a student of the seminary.
This is a developing story.