AKORA KHATTAK, Pakistan (AP) — Thousands of mourners attended a funeral Saturday for a Taliban-linked cleric slain in Pakistan’s northwest.
Hamidul Haq, the head of Jamia Haqqania seminary, was one of seven people killed in a suicide bombing a day earlier at a mosque inside a seminary compound. Police said Haq was the target of the attack.
He was the son of the late Maulana Samiul Haq, who is considered a founding figure for the Afghan and Pakistani branches of the Taliban. Many Afghan Taliban have studied at Jamia Haqqania in the past few decades.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack.
Authorities issued a photo of the alleged suicide bomber and urged the public to identify him, offering a reward of 500,000 rupees, or $1,787, for information on his name, parentage and place of residence.
Mourners packed into the main hall of the seminary for Haq’s funeral, with more praying on the street. The prayers passed without incident due to a heavy police deployment and seminary students guarding the venue.
The bombing at Jamia Haqqania seminary was one of four attacks in Pakistan on Friday, two of them at mosques, which were unusual both in their number and timing, just before the holy month of Ramadan.
