6 yıl önce

Thousands attend funeral of Pakistan's pro-Taliban cleric

Sami ul Haq was a prominent leader in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he was repeatedly involved in peace processes. Haq was called the 'Father of the Taliban' since Mullah Omar, who founded the Taliban, was among his many students.

Reuters

Men move the body of Muslim cleric Sami ul Haq, known as the "Father of the Taliban" for having taught some of the Afghan movement's leaders, from the hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan on November 2, 2018.

Thousands of mourners have attended the funeral of a prominent Pakistani cleric who was killed in a knife attack at his home in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Maulana Sami ul Haq's son, Hamid ul Haq, led his father's funeral prayer Saturday in the town of Akora Khattak in the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

Haq, the head of his faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam party, was killed on Friday.

He was a revered teacher with influence over Pakistani militants and Afghanistan's Taliban, many of whose leaders and commanders studied a strict interpretation of Islam at his Haqqani seminary, earning him the title of "father of the Taliban."

In recent weeks, Afghan clerics had appealed to Haq to use his influence on Afghanistan's Taliban to ensure peace there.

TRT World correspondent Ali Mustafa went to his seminary where thousands were gathered to pay their final respects.