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Prominent Taliban cleric Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani killed in Kabul attack

NEW DELHIUpdated: Aug 11, 2022, 10:40 PM IST
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Taliban religious leader Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani Photograph:(Twitter)

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Haqqani was a well-known scholar in the Taliban who had survived other assaults, including a sizable explosion in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar in 2020 that the ISIL (ISIS) group claimed to have been responsible for and which left at least seven people dead.

Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, a well-known Taliban religious figure, was killed in a bombing at a seminary in Kabul, according to Taliban officials.

According to four Taliban sources cited by Reuters, the assailant had previously lost a leg and had concealed the explosives in a plastic prosthetic limb.

The Islamic State (IS) organisation, which had previously vowed to kill the preacher, took credit for the attack and claimed that it occurred in his office.

The attack happened inside an Islamic seminary in the Afghan capital, according to local media.

A tweet by TOLO news read, "Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, one of the religious scholars, was killed in an explosion in his school. Bilal Karimi, the deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, has confirmed the death of Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani. It is said that this religious scholar was killed in an explosion in his school in Kabul."
 

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Sheikh Haqqani was an ardent supporter of the Taliban administration in Afghanistan and a vocal opponent of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K), an IS regional affiliate that operates in Afghanistan and opposes the Taliban's leadership.

He is one of the most well-known people to have died in Afghanistan since the Taliban retook power last year.

Haqqani was a well-known academic in the Taliban who had survived other assaults, including a sizable explosion in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar in 2020 that the ISIL (ISIS) group claimed to have been responsible for and which left at least seven people dead. Several Taliban leaders posted condolences on social media.

He was not, however, associated with the network of the Haqqani militant group in Afghanistan.

(With inputs from agencies)

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