Mullah Sami ul-Haq Killed in Pakistan: Deputy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Pakistani cleric Sami ul-Haq was found killed on Friday in Pakistan, a relative and his deputy said.
Unknown attackers killed the cleric, who ran a seminary in northwestern Pakistan and was seen as a possible intermediary in talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, his deputy Yousaf Shah said, Reuters reported.
There were conflicting reports of exactly how he was killed and why his bodyguard and driver were apparently not there to defend him at the time of the attack.
Shah initially said that Haq had been shot dead.
Haq’s nephew Mohammad Bilal said his uncle was found with stabbing and gunshot wounds in a house he owns in an upscale area on Islamabad’s outskirts.
“When the assailants entered his house ... They first started hitting Mullah Sami ul-Haq with knives and daggers and then shot him dead,” he said.
Further details remained unclear.
Haq has run the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghanistan border, for decades.
