Islamabad: Pakistani cleric Maulana Samiul Haq, known as the father of the Taliban, was assassinated on Friday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near here. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Sami) chief was stabbed to death inside his house in Bahria Town locality.
“He was at his residence and was supposed to travel to Akora Khattak. The servants had gone to get food when unknown attackers entered the house and assassinated him,” said his grandson Maulana Abdul Haq.
Maulana Haq was the head cleric of Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak. He has served on the post since the death of his father, Maulana Abdul Haq, who founded the madrassah in 1988. Many leaders of Afghan Taliban, including the movement’s founder Mullah Omar, studied at Darul Uloom Haqqania.
Maulana Haq was regarded as the ‘Father of the Taliban,’ referring to the relationship between a student (Talib) and teacher was a relationship of father and child, and had close ties to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
