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Pakistan: 5 killed, dozens injured in powerful suicide blast at Taliban religious school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
A bomb exploded at a pro-Taliban seminary mosque in northwestern Pakistan, killing five and injuring many ahead of Ramzan.
Pakistan blast: A powerful suicide bomb exploded at a mosque within a pro-Taliban seminary or religious school in northwestern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday, killing at least five worshippers and wounding dozens of others ahead of the fasting month of Ramzan, according to local police.
The explosion took place in Akkora Khattak, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Abdul Rashid, a district police chief said. He added that officers are investigating, and the dead and wounded are being transported to hospitals.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack inside Jamia Haqqania, a seminary which is known for links with the Afghan Taliban, news agency Associated Press reported.
The bombing came ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan, which is expected to start either on Saturday or Sunday subject to the sighting of the Moon.
It was given the nickname the "University of Jihad" for its fiery ideology and the number of Taliban fighters it has produced.
The sprawling campus is home to roughly 4,000 students who are fed, clothed and educated for free.
For decades, Pakistani madrassas have served as incubators for militancy, indoctrinating tens of thousands of refugees who have few other options for education than the fire-breathing lectures from hardline clerics.
The late founder of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, who led an insurgency against the United States and NATO troops in Afghanistan, was among the senior leaders to have graduated from the school.
So did Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the feared Haqqani network, responsible for some of the worst attacks in Afghanistan during the two-decade war.
The school has sat at the crossroads of regional militant violence for years, educating many Pakistanis and Afghan refugees -- some of whom returned home to wage war against the Russians and Americans or preach jihad.
The Taliban surged back to power in Kabul in August 2021 after foreign forces withdrew and the former government collapsed.
Militancy has since rebounded in the border regions with Afghanistan.
Last year was the deadliest in a decade for Pakistan, with a surge in attacks that killed more than 1,600 people, according to Islamabad-based analysis group the Center for Research and Security Studies.
Islamabad accuses Kabul's rulers of failing to root out militants sheltering on Afghan soil as they prepare to stage assaults on Pakistan, a charge the Taliban government denies.
Taliban 'strongly condemn' attack
Afghanistan's Taliban government condemned the suicide blast on the Islamic religious school with historic links to the Taliban movement.
"We strongly condemn the attack, we know them as the enemies of the religion, we have tried our best to eliminate them successfully," said Afghan interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani, blaming the attack that has not yet been claimed on the Islamic State group.
(With inputs from AP, AFP)
