Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, a prominent Taliban cleric, was killed in a suicide attack at his Islamic seminary in Kabul. A staunch supporter of the Taliban, Haqqani was a critic of ISIS and its Afghan arm Islamic State Kohrasan Province (IS-K), and had survived multiple assassination attempts earlier.
Bilal Karimi, the deputy spokesperson of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, confirmed the death on Twitter. He tweeted that Sheikh Sahib Rahimullah Haqqani has reached the highest position of martyrdom in a brutal attack of the merciless enemy.
هرگز نمیرد آنکه دلش زنده شد بعشق
— Bilal Karimi(بلال کریمي) (@BilalKarimi21) August 11, 2022
ثبت است بر جریدهٔ عالم دوام ما
په ډیرې خواشینۍ سره مو خبر تر لاسه کړ، چې د هیواد ستره هستي او علمي شخصیت شیخ صاحب رحیم الله حقاني د نامرده او نامراده دښمن په ناځوانمردانه حمله کې د شهادت لوړ مقام ته رسیدلی، انالله و انا الیه راجعون. pic.twitter.com/hg1wFBzr1N
Afghan media house Tolo News added that the cleric was killed at his own seminary in Kabul.
Religious cleric Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani was killed, said Bilal Karimi, dep. spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, on Twitter. Reportedly Haqqani died today in a blast at his seminary in Kabul. pic.twitter.com/rBBV4iGJ6R
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) August 11, 2022
According to a Reuters report, the attacker had hidden the explosives in a plastic artificial leg and detonated it entering Haqqani’s private office at his seminary. The attacker had lost his leg earlier and was using a prosthetic leg, which he used to conceal the bomb to carry out the suicide attack.
Taliban officials said that they are investigating the case to find out who the attacker was and who had brought him to the important place like the personal office of the cleric. “It’s a very huge loss for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” said the senior official of the interior ministry.
Haqqani had survived two previous attacks in Pakistan, including a large blast in Peshawar in 2020. That attack was carried out by the Islamic State and at least seven people were killed in it.
According to BBC, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani was a supporter of female education, and it is suspected that the attack was carried out by IS-K. He had previously issued a fatwa in support of female education, which have become a contentious issue in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured the country in 2021.
