PROMINENT TALIBAN SCHOLAR RAHIMULLAH HAQQANI KILLED IN KABUL ATTACK

Thu 11 August 2022:

Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, a renowned Taliban religious leader, was killed in an explosion at a seminary in Kabul, according to Taliban authorities.

“Very sadly informed that respected cleric [Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani] was martyred in a cowardly attack by enemies,” said Bilal Karimi, a spokesperson for the Taliban administration, on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast. The Reuters news agency, citing four Taliban sources, said the attacker was someone who had previously lost his leg and had hidden the explosives in a plastic artificial leg.

“We are investigating who this … person was and who had brought him to this important place to enter the personal office of Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani. It’s a very huge loss for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” said a senior Taliban official of the interior ministry, referring to the group’s name for its administration.

Haqqani was a prominent scholar in the Taliban who had survived previous attacks, including a large blast in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar in 2020 claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) group that killed at least seven people.

Many Taliban officials expressed their condolences on social media.

The ISIL affiliate, which has been active in Afghanistan since 2014, is seen as the country’s most serious security threat to the Taliban government.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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