ISLAMABAD: Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S), was killed in a knife attack at his residence in Rawalpindi, said local media reported on Friday.
“The Maulana has been martyred,” his close aide and deputy chief of JUI-S, Yousaf Shah, confirmed while talking to Arab News. “All I can tell you at the moment is that he is no more with us.”
“Maulana Sami-ul-Haq has been assassinated,” Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, tweeted as well. “Small protests have erupted in Aabpara chowk. Everyone is advised to please stay at home for a while. We will take control of the situation in a while.”
Maulana Sami-ul-Haq ran a high-profile religious seminary, Darul Uloom Akora Khattak.
Notable deceased Afghan Taliban leaders, Mullah Muhammad Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, were among its alumni.
It was not just Haq’s influence with the Afghan Taliban but also his sway over Pakistan’s politics that led the Pakistani Taliban ask him to help negotiate a truce with the country’s government years back before Qatar allowed the Taliban to open an office in Doha.
A former senator, Haq spoke fluent Arabic, Urdu and Pashto.
His seminary was unofficially dubbed as “the university of jihad,” and he was frequently described as the “father of Taliban.” He was also widely viewed as a key to any peace deal to be negotiated between militant factions and the United States and Pakistan.
