Pakistan: Six killed in blast at mosque dubbed 'University of Jihad'
At least six people have been killed in a suicide attack at an Islamic seminary in northern Pakistan that has been described as the "University of Jihad".The blast happened at the mosque within the Darul Uloom Haqqania, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 55km (34 miles) from the northern city of Peshawar.Maulana Hamid ul-Haq, a prominent cleric and the influential head of the school, is among the dead. Police said more than 10 other people had been injured.The seminary has long been associated with the Taliban since several of its members, including the group's founder Mullah Omar, trained there.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, which came ahead of the start of the holy month of Ramadan.The explosion occurred after Friday prayers, according to local police.Haq's son, Khuzaima Sami, told the BBC that hundreds were present in the main hall at the time of the blast and that he feared there would be many casualties.An investigation has been launched into the attack."Initial reports suggest the blast occurred after Friday prayers as people were gathering to greet Hamid ul-Haq," Abdul Rasheed, the district police chief, told the AFP news agency.The seminary - where clerics are taught - also known as a madrassa, is considered one of the region's most renowned religious educational institutions and is an important academic centre of the Deoband school of thought.It has been referred to as the "University of Jihad" due to its notable alumni, including Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the militant Haqqani Network, and his son Sirajuddin Haqqani.Both men played key roles in leading the Taliban's insurgency, first against Soviet forces and later against US and Nato forces, in Afghanistan.Haq, 57, was the son of the influential Pakistani cleric Maulana Sami ul-Haq, widely known as the "Father of the Taliban".He became the seminary's vice-chancellor after his father's assassination in 2018, and the head of a faction of the religious Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) political party.He also served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2002 to 2007.Haq's father had longstanding ties with the Afghan Taliban's leadership, including Mullah Omar.He was considered an influential figure in facilitating negotiations between the Taliban and the Pakistani government.Despite their strong connections with the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, neither Haq nor his father were directly involved in any anti-state movements.Instead, they were often seen as intermediaries between Pakistan and the Taliban.Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack, as did the Pakistani Taliban.The group described Haq as a "preacher of truth, a compassionate teacher, and a fearless advocate for the stability of madrassas".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
26 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Brit couple charged on suspicion of importing £1m of cannabis from Thailand after returning from holiday in Bangkok
Sian's dad has insisted that she is innocent of the charges - and only had clothes in her suitcase £1M POT RAP Brit couple charged on suspicion of importing £1m of cannabis from Thailand after returning from holiday in Bangkok A COUPLE have been charged with smuggling £1million of cannabis from Thailand. Sian Warren, 34, and Daniel McDonald, 36, were stopped when they returned to Heathrow. Advertisement 3 Sian Warren and Daniel McDonald's dream trip to Bangkok ended with the pair being detained after £1m of cannabis was found in their suitcases 3 Daniel, pictured, and Sian were charged with importing Class B drugs 3 Sian's dad has insisted that she is innocent of the charges - and only had clothes in her suitcase National Crime Agency officers found four cases packed with more than 51kg of cannabis. The pair were charged with importing Class B drugs and appeared the following day at Uxbridge magistrates' court. They have been bailed under curfew ahead of a plea hearing on June 26 at Isleworth crown court. The couple left Salford for a dream holiday to Bangkok last month. Advertisement Sian works as an administrator for Daniel's dad's building business. Her dad, Tony, said: 'Sian's not brought anything back, definitely not. 'She had her own suitcase with clothes in it.' The couple are the latest Brits to be arrested on suspicion of trying to import cannabis from Thailand into either Europe or the UK. Advertisement Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, Herts, was detained at Munich Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage after cops discovered it was packed with drugs after arriving from Thailand. And Brit Bella May Culley, 18, sparked a massive international search operation in early May after she was reported missing while holidaying in Thailand. Brit tourist, 18, reported missing for days in Thailand is arrested on 'drug offences' in Georgia 4,000 miles away However, it was later revealed that the teen, from Billingham, County Durham, had been arrested 4,000 miles away on drug offences in Georgia. She was allegedly carrying 30 pounds (14kg) of cannabis into the ex-Soviet nation.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Newscast Winter Fuel's Back, Back Again (For Most)
Today, Labour confirms 75% of pensioners will keep their winter fuel payments, reversing a widely criticised policy. Nine million pensioners in England and Wales with an annual income of £35,000 or less will now be eligible. The payment, worth up to £300 to help with energy bills during the coldest months, was paid only to those on pension credit last year. Alex and Chris discuss the chain of events that have led to this moment, and what it says about the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Also, a yacht carrying 12 pro-Palestinian activists, including Greta Thunberg, was intercepted by the Israeli navy while sailing toward Gaza with aid. Alex speaks to the BBC's Jeremy Bowen about what happened and the state of humanitarian aid in Gaza. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast'. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Alex Forsyth. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Julia Webster and Adam Chowdhury. The technical producer was Hannah Montgomery and James Piper. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Labour are still in deep trouble despite by-election win
FOR a man whose party had just won a by-election, it was widely expected to lose, Anas Sarwar is not at all a happy bunny. His aggressive and angrily needy behaviour while being interviewed by Martin Geissler on the BBC Scotland Sunday Show will remind fans of RuPaul's Drag Race of the iconic droll comment made by contestant Trixie Mattell when a competitor had a very public and furious temper tantrum after being put through to the next round by the judges but failing to make the top three: "I think that's a lot of emotion for safe." For those not familiar with the show, the comment was a pointed reference to the fact that although the contestant in question had survived that particular episode, the temper tantrum was due to their awareness that they were not on track to win the contest, and as it transpired, they were eliminated not long afterwards. Likewise, the anger displayed by Anas Sarwar was due to his awareness that despite this by-election win, his party remains in deep, deep, trouble, and that trouble is largely of Labour's own creation. Whatever you might think of the SNP's decision to focus its attacks on Reform UK during the by election campaign - and spoiler alert I think it was tactically a disaster - it's pretty rich of Anas Sarwar to go on the BBC, of all media platforms, and accuse John Swinney of running a "dishonest and disgraceful" campaign which pushed voters to Reform UK. Rarely has psychological projection been so manifest in a political interview. READ MORE: Scotland's top doctor warns of climate and pollution public health emergency It doesn't push voters to Reform when you do as the SNP has done and complain loudly that Reform is running an overtly racist campaign. What pushes voters to Reform is when you do what the Labour party and the BBC have been doing, which is to ape Reform's policies, thus legitimising and mainstreaming them, and to give Reform's leader a platform out of all proportion to his political success. The rise of Reform has nothing to do with the SNP, and everything to do with the Labour and Conservative parties and the anti-independence British media, above all the BBC. Of course, Anas Sarwar knows that, he's not a stupid man. He is, however, a politically dishonest man. The very last thing he can do in public is to admit the responsibility of his own party or that of a publicly owned broadcaster to which his party is linked by an umbilical cord in facilitating , encouraging and normalising racist far-right Anglo-British nationalism. Blaming far-right Anglo-British nationalism on the SNP is a new low, even by the base standards of the Labour Party in Scotland. Talking of pandering to the far right, the BBC has revealed that it has drawn up plans to "regain the trust" of Reform UK voters. The plans reportedly include changing news and drama content in order to make the broadcaster's output more appealing to the kind of people who have no problem at all with Doctor Who being a shape shifting near immortal alien who can cross time and space while fighting all sorts of trans-dimensional alien threats and sentient dinosaurs, but who complain it becomes unbelievable when the Doctor regenerates into a woman or a gay black Scotsman. Minutes of a meeting of the BBC's Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee in March, which has been seen by Byline Times, show that BBC News CEO Deborah Turness gave a presentation in which she discussed plans to alter 'story selection' and 'other types of output, such as drama' in order to win back the trust of Reform voters. One of the key members of the BBC's Editorial Guidelines Committee is former GB News executive Robbie Gibb, an arch-Brextremist who was appointed to the board by Boris Johnson in 2021. In 2022, former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis described Gibb as an 'active agent of the Conservative party.' Gibb was Theresa May's Downing Street Director of Communications between 2017 and 2019. (Image: House of Lords) Expect more news reports on immigration and greater prominence given to uncritical coverage of Reform UK politicians. They should just go the whole hog and rebrand BBC Question Time as 'An Evening with Nigel Farage'. Gibb was also previously the director of The Jewish Chronicle. Gibb fronted a consortium of worthies who 'rescued' the paper in 2020, but who claim either not to know, or are not saying, who put up the cash. In his November 2023 BBC Declaration of Personal Interests, Gibb stated that he was the 100 per cent owner of the Jewish Chronicle. After Gibbs' departure in August 2024, the newspaper was forced to apologise for publishing a series of fabricated pro-Israeli stories about the Gaza war. In drama, you can now look forward to cosy murders set in English country villages where everyone is white and heterosexual, and period dramas about a plucky colonial doctor, who repeatedly references how Scottish he is despite his upper class English accent, serving in one of the British Empire's African possessions, where over the course of a six episode story arc he rescues the benighted natives from their pagan superstitions and Arab slave raiders and eventually succeeds in winning the heart of a beautiful English rose, the daughter of a wealthy duke who heads a household of forelock tugging salt of the earth servants. I should stop here in case the BBC thinks this is a story pitch. Compare and contrast, surveys have shown that the BBC has lost most public trust in Scotland, in no small measure due to the Corporation's blatantly one-sided coverage of Scotland's constitutional debate, but the BBC shows no interest in trying to win back the trust of Scotland's independence-supporting viewers and listeners. The reason for that is that, despite his constant claims to be 'anti-elite,' Farage and his ilk pose no threat at all to the British establishment, they are merely the latest iteration of that establishment's attempts to subvert and control impulses to push back against it.
