Maulana Samiul Haq, assassinated on Friday in Pakistan's Rawalpindi, was the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami (JUI-S).
Islamabad: Maulana Samiul Haq, a Pakistani religious scholar and a former senator, was assassinated on Friday. His family said Samiul Haq was stabbed to death at his home in Rawalpindi city. Samiul Haq was known as the 'Father of the Taliban' and was the chief of the hardline political party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami (JUI-S).
Contrary to earlier Pakistani media reports that Samiul Haq was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on motorcycles in his vehicle, the influential religious leader's son Maulana Hamidul Haq was quoted as saying by Geo News that his father had been stabbed to death while his driver had ventured out of the home.
"He was no longer alive," Hamidul Haq said, adding the driver, upon his return, had found his father lying on the bed in a pool of blood. Samiul Haq, a close ally of Prime Minister Imran Khan, "was stabbed multiple times," Hamidul Haq added.
JUI-S' Peshawar president confirmed that Samiul Haq, said to be around 83 years old, had died in the assassination attempt in Rawalpindi.
Samiul Haq, who was also the head of the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Akora Khattak, was regarded as the ‘Father of the Taliban’ as he had taught some of the leaders of the Afghan Islamist movement.
Last month, the religious leader was called upon by a high-level delegation from Afghanistan, asking him to play a role in resolving the Afghan crisis.
Samiul Haq has been killed in the midst of protests by religio-political parties over the Supreme Court's move to acquit a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, on blasphemy charges. Samiul Haq’s son said the cleric was not able to join the protest due to road blockades and had come back to his home in Rawalpindi.
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