Police in northwestern Pakistan said Friday a suicide bomber detonated himself during afternoon prayers at the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary, killing at least six worshipers and wounding more than a dozen others.
At least six people, including JUI-S leader Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, were killed and 15 injured when a suicide blast ripped through the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Nowshera district, according to officials.
The blast tore through the main prayer hall of the madressah as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers, KP Police Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed confirmed to Dawn.com. “It was a suicide blast. Three policemen were also injured in the attack,” Hameed said.
A statement from the Directorate of Public Relations KP Police said that the blast occurred at 2pm, adding that police and rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the site of the incident.
In a statement issued by the office of the hospital director, six people were killed in the attack, while at least 15 were injured.
Seminary head Maulana Hamidul Haq was among those killed, and the death toll was expected to rise, according to local hospital officials.
The provincial police chief, Zulfiqar Hameed, confirmed the casualties, saying an investigation into the bombing was underway.
Haqqania, with several thousand students, is located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and is among South Asia’s largest and most respected Islamic seminaries. The top leaders of Afghanistan’s Taliban also studied at the madrasa in the town of Akora Khattak.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but suspicions fell on a regional Islamic State group affiliate, the Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K.
The group, which the United Nations says is based in neighboring Afghanistan, has taken credit for other madrasa attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
IS-K has routinely carried out high-profile attacks against leaders and clerics affiliated with the Taliban government in Kabul, killing dozens of them in recent months.
