The Pakistani cleric and hardliner Islamic political party, Jamiat Ulema Islam-Sami (JUI-S) Chief, Maulana Sami ul-Haq, regarded as the "Father of the Taliban", has been killed in the northern city of Rawalpindi. Local media quoted his family members as saying that he was stabbed to death. But other reports say he was shot dead. There are still conflicting reports of exactly how Haq was killed. So far, no outfit has claimed the responsibility of the killing.
Sami ul Haq was born on 18 December 1937 in Akora Khattak, North-West Frontier Province of British India (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan). His father was Moulana Abdul Haq, who was educated at Darul Uloom Deoband in India. He began his education at Darul Uloom Haqqania, which was founded by his father. There he studied fiqh, usul al-fiqh, Arabic literature, logic, Arabic grammar, tafsir, and Hadith. He was well versed in Arabic.
Darul haqqania: University of Jihad!
This seminary propagates the Deobandi trend of Sunni Islam and was founded along the lines of Darul Uloom Deoband. It has been dubbed as The University of Jihad due to the methods and content of instruction along with the future occupations of its alumni. The Darul Uloom Haqqania was the launching pad for the Taliban movement in the 1990s and is described as the incubator for Islamist terrorists. On September 23, 1947, Maulana Abdul Haq, father of Maulana Sami ul Haq, founded the institution. Maulana Sami ul-Haq was the director and chancellor of Darul uloom Haqqania, and has served in this post since the death of his father, Maulana Abdul ul-Haq, the founder of the madrassa, in 1988.
Haqqani Network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AIQS) leader Asim Umar and slain Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor were also among the alumni of the seminary
Influence on Taliban
Sami ul-Haq, who was in his 80s, enjoyed immense influence and respect among the leaders of the militant groups like Taliban and Haqqani Network. He had close ties to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. In 1999, at least eight Taliban cabinet ministers were graduates of Haq’s madrasah and dozens of graduates of his seminary served as Taliban governors, military commanders, judges and bureaucrats during their regime in Afghanistan. Once Haq was stated that the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard G. Olson, visited him in July 2013 to discuss the situation of the region.
Haq, in an interview said about Taliban that "give them just one year and they will make the whole of Afghanistan happy... The whole of Afghanistan will be with them ... Once the Americans leave, all of this will happen within a year... As long as they are there, Afghans will have to fight for their freedom," Haq said. "It's a war for freedom. It will not stop until outsiders leave."
In recent weeks, dozens of Afghan clerics had appealed to Sami ul-Haq to use his influence with Afghanistan's Taliban to help convince the militant group to begin peace negotiations.
Political life
Apart from activities related to Darul Haqqania, he was actively participated in politics too. Haq served as chairman of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (which comprises more than 30 fundamentalist religious, political and terrorist groups.) and was the leader of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam political party, known as JUI-S. Sami ul-Haq was also a founding member of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. He formed Mutahida Deeni Mahaz (United Religious Front), an alliance of relatively small religio-political parties, to participate in the 2013 general election. On 25 March 2013, he unveiled the electoral manifesto of the front, pledging that all high offices of the state, including the president, prime minister, chief justice and chiefs of armed forces, would be held only by Sunni Muslim men. It also talked of abolishing coeducation and training all adult Muslims for jihad.
He was twice elected as member of the Senate of Pakistan—from 1985 to 1991 and again from 1991 to 1997. According to the Senate website, Haq was an active protagonist of the Tahreek-i-Khatam-e-Nabowat in 1974 and Tahreek-i-Nizam-i-Mustafa in 1977. He was a member of the Majlis-i-Shoora in 1983-85 and was a member of the Presidential Committee on religious matters. He was elected to the Senate in 1985 and was one of the principal movers of the historic Shariat Bill in the Senate. In 2014, the JUI-S chief headed a committee formed for peace talks with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
He had been aligned with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's ruling Tehreek-i-Insaf party for the July 25 elections. (The provincial PTI government led Parvej Khattak, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa donated millions of dollars to Haq’s hardline seminary).
The news of his death comes at a sensitive time for Pakistan, with religio-political parties out on the streets to protest against the Supreme Court's acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, in a 9 year old blasphemy case. Pakistani media reported Haq was also trying to reach the protest in Islamabad but had to come back home due to the roads being blocked.
Thousands of angry protesters came out on the streets in the northwestern city of Mardan near Haq’s seminary, setting a highway toll station on fire in the wake of the news.
Haq's death may not have much effect on Pakistan's politics, but there may be a possibility of a widespread disturbance in the area of Taliban's influence on the Pak- Afghan border. Although, in the peace process of Afghanistan, Haq was no longer has any significant role, but he could have proved useful in arbitration in many crucial issues with the Taliban.