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Sami-ul-Haq

Sami ul Haq (Urdu: مولانا سمیع الحق, Samī'u’l-Ḥaq; 18 December 1938 – 2 November 2018) was a Pakistani religious scholar and senator.[1] He was known as the Father of Taliban for the role his seminary Darul Uloom Haqqania played in the graduation of most Taliban leaders and commanders, having close ties to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.[3][4][5][6]

Maulana
Sami ul Haq
سمیع الحق
Sami-ul-Haq in 2017.
Ameer of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S)
In office
1980 – 2 November 2018
Preceded byMufti Mahmud
Succeeded byMaulana Hamid Ul Haq Haqqani
Chairman of Difa-e-Pakistan Council
In office
October 2011 – 2 November 2018
2nd Chancellor of Darul Uloom Haqqania
In office
7 September 1988 – 2 November 2018
Preceded byAbdul Haq
Succeeded byAnwar-ul-Haq Haqqani
Pakistan Senator for North-West Frontier Province
In office
March 2003 – March 2009
February 1985 – March 1997
Member of Pakistan Majlis-e-Shoora
In office
1983–1985
Personal details
Born18 December 1937
Akora Khattak, NWFP, British India
Died2 November 2018(2018-11-02) (aged 79)
Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan
Manner of deathAssassination by stabbings
Nationality British Indian (1937-1947)
 Pakistani (1947-2018)
Political party JUI-S (1980-2018)
Difa-e-Pakistan Council (2011-2018)[1]
Other political
affiliations		 Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (before 1980)
Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (before 1993)
ChildrenHamid Ul Haq Haqqani[2]
Parent
Alma materDarul Uloom Haqqania

With his party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S), which split from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) because Haq supported Zia-ul-Haq and his policies, he was a member of the Senate of Pakistan from 1985 to 1991 and again from 1991 to 1997.[7]

After his assassination in 2018 his son Hamid Ul Haq Haqqani became the chancellor of the seminary and the ameer or head of the political party.

Early life and family

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Haq was born on 18 December 1937 in Akora Khattak, North-West Frontier Province of British India (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan).[7] His father was Abdul Haq Akorwi, who was educated at Darul Uloom Deoband in India. He began his education in 1366 AH (1946 or 1947 CE) at Darul Uloom Haqqania, which was founded by his father.[8][9] He was well versed in Arabic but also used Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, and the regional language of Pashto.[3]

He had four brothers, including Anwarul Haq Haqqani, responsible of the seminary’s administration, and Mehmood Ul Haq Haqqani, who was professor of chemistry at the Peshawar University and who also served as Pakistan’s deputy ambassador to Saudi Arabia, while he himself married twice and had nine children.[10]

Career

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Ties with the Afghan Taliban

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Sami-ul-Haq was regarded as the "Father of the Taliban"[6][11] and had close ties to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.[3][4][12] Sami ul Haq was the chancellor of Darul Uloom Haqqania, a Deobandi Islamic seminary which is the alma mater of many prominent Taliban members.[4][13] Haq served as chairman of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council and was the leader of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam political party, known as JUI-S.[14] Sami ul-Haq was also a founding member of a six-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal ahead of 2002 general election.[1][15]

He had also served as a member of the Senate of Pakistan.[16][17] He formed Muttahida Deeni Mahaz (United Religious Front), an alliance of relatively small religio-political parties, to participate in the 2013 general election.[18][19]

Haq stated that the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Richard G. Olson, visited him in July 2013 to discuss the situation of the region.[3] Haq sympathized with the Taliban, stating: "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."[3]

In October 2018, an Afghan delegation comprising Ashraf Ghani government representatives and diplomats stationed in Pakistan, met Samiul Haq asking him to play a role in restoring peace in Afghanistan by bringing the Afghan Taliban back to the dialogue table.[20]

Fatwa on polio vaccination

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After Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan initiated a campaign against polio immunisation, forcing hundreds of thousands of children to miss vaccinations, on 9 December 2013 Maulana Sami ul Haq issued a fatwa in favour of polio vaccination.[21][22] The fatwa said "vaccination against deadly diseases is helpful in their prevention according to research conducted by renowned medical specialists. It adds that the vaccines used against these diseases are in no way harmful".[23]

Death

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On 2 November 2018, Sami-ul-Haq was stabbed multiple times at around 7:00 pm PST at his residence in Bahria Town, Rawalpindi.[24][25] He was taken to the nearby Safari Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The cause of his death was excessive blood loss due to the multiple stabbing across his body, including his face.[26] According to his guard, he had intended to join the protests against the acquittal of Asia Bibi in Islamabad, but he could not join it due to road blockage.[27]

Following the assassination, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government declared a day of mourning.[28] Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the murder saying "the country has suffered a great loss".[29]

On 3 November 2018, he was buried in the premises of Darul Uloom Haqqania in his hometown of Akora Khattak in the afternoon. The funeral prayer was offered at the Khushal Khan Degree College and led by his son Hamid Ul Haq Haqqani.[28] It was attended by a large number of political leaders and his followers. As part of the investigation into his murder, the police questioned his domestic staff.[30]

Books

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The editor-in-chief of the monthly journal Al-Haq until his death, he has been described as "a prolific Islamist writer" who "authored more than 20 books",[31] some of his works including :[32]

  • Islām Aur ʻAṣr-i Hāz̤ir, 1976. On Islam and the modern world, collected articles.
  • Qādiyān Sey Isrāʼīl Tak, 1978. Critical assessment of the Ahmadiyya movement.
  • Kārvān-i Āk̲h̲irat, 1990. Collection of condolence letters on the death of various South Asian religious scholars.
  • Ṣalibī Dahshatgardī Aur ʻĀlam-i Islām, 2004. Collection of interviews discussing Taliban movement, United States of America and West interests in Afghanistan.
  • Qādiyānī Fitnah Aur Millat-i Islāmiyah Kā Mauʼqqif , 2011. Criticism of the Ahmadiyya movement, co-authored with Muhammad Taqi Usmani.
  • K̲h̲ut̤bāt-i Mashāhīr, 2015. Collected sermons on religious life in Islam, Islam and conduct of life and Islam and politics, in 10 volumes.
  • Afghan Taliban: War of Ideology : Struggle for Peace, 2015. His last notable book, on the peace process in Afghanistan.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "VOICES FROM THE WHIRLWIND: Assessing Musharraf's Predicament - Sami ul-Haq: Powerful Religious Leader". Public Broadcasting Service (US Public TV website). Public Broadcasting Service. March 2004. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  2. ^ "Maulana Sami's son named JUI-S chief". The Nation. 5 November 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Pakistani 'Father of Taliban' keeps watch over loyal disciples". Maria Golovnina and Sheree Sardar. Reuters News Agency website. 15 September 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2018. ... Haq said, alternating between Pakistan's official Urdu and his native Pashto language. Haq, who speaks fluent Arabic, ...
  4. ^ a b c "Taliban Training the Pakistan". Deutsche Welle. 23 May 2015.
  5. ^ Westhead, Rick (13 May 2009). "Inside Pakistan's Jihad U". The Toronto Star. In 1997, Sami ul-Haq received a phone call from Omar, the Taliban leader. The Taliban had been defeated in an attempt to capture Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Omar needed reinforcements. "Mullah Omar personally rang me to request that I let these students go to Afghanistan on leave since they are needed there," ul-Haq was quoted as saying in Pakistan journalist Ahmed Rashid's book, Taliban. Ul-Haq agreed to help Omar and briefly shut down his school to help his students arrange passage through the Khyber Pass to Afghanistan.
  6. ^ a b Ali, Imtiaz (23 May 2007). "The Father of the Taliban: An Interview with Maulana Sami ul-Haq". Spotlight on Terror. The Jamestown Foundation website. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  7. ^ a b Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, Senate of Pakistan
  8. ^ Hussain, Zahid (1 July 2008). Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231142250.
  9. ^ Westhead, Rick (13 May 2009). "Inside Pakistan's Jihad U". The Toronto Star. "This is not a (terrorist) training centre," says Rashid ul-Haq. His grandfather established the madrassa in 1947 and his father, Sami ul-Haq, was a Pakistani senator for 18 years and is one of Haqqani's directors.
  10. ^ Yousafzai, Shahabullah; Khan, Hidayat (2 November 2018). "Maulana Samiul Haq – life in focus". The Express Tribune.
  11. ^ Ali, Imtiaz (27 January 2009). "Maulana Sami ul-Haq: Father of the Taliban" (audio). Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project. Center for Strategic and International Studies. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  12. ^ Westhead, Rick (13 May 2009). "Inside Pakistan's Jihad U". The Toronto Star. In 1997, Sami ul-Haq received a phone call from Omar, the Taliban leader. The Taliban had been defeated in an attempt to capture Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Omar needed reinforcements. "Mullah Omar personally rang me to request that I let these students go to Afghanistan on leave since they are needed there," ul-Haq was quoted as saying in Pakistan journalist Ahmed Rashid's book, Taliban. Ul-Haq agreed to help Omar and briefly shut down his school to help his students arrange passage through the Khyber Pass to Afghanistan.
  13. ^ Dalrymple, William. "Inside the Madrasas". The New York Review of Books. Here, straddling the noisy, truck-thundering Islamabad highway, stands the Haqqania, one of the most radical of the religious schools called madrasas. Many of the Taliban leaders, including Mullah Omar, were trained at this institution.
  14. ^ Siddiqui, Taha (11 February 2012). "Tahreek-e-Labbaiyak Pakistan Part 1/2: Jihadis itch for resurgence". The Express Tribune (newspaper). Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  15. ^ "Five DPC parties plan new electoral alliance". Dawn. 6 December 2012. Maulana Sami was also among the founders of a six-party religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis Amal ahead of 2002 polls that later ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan under Musharraf regime.
  16. ^ "Maulana Sami-ul-Haq". www.senate.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  17. ^ "Maulana Samiul Haq". www.senate.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 9 December 2007. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  18. ^ Wasim, Amir (20 April 2013). "Few election alliances this time". Dawn. The Muttahida Deeni Mahaz (MDM), a group of five small religious parties and groups headed by Maulana Samiul Haq of the Jamiat-Ulema-i-Islam-Sami (JUI-S), is the only electoral alliance that is fielding its candidates in the May 11 elections.
  19. ^ "Muttahida Deeni Mahaz–another Political Alliance Formed". jamhuriat.pk. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  20. ^ "Afghan govt approaches Samiul Haq to mediate in peace talks with Taliban". The Express Tribune. 1 October 2018.
  21. ^ "Pakistan cleric Maulana Sami ul-Haq backs polio campaign". BBC. 10 December 2013.
  22. ^ Khan, Ismail (3 November 2018). "Obituary: 'Father of Afghan Taliban' who supported polio drive at home". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  23. ^ "One drop at a time: Fatwa issued in favour of polio vaccination campaign". The Express Tribune. 10 December 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  24. ^ "JUI-S chief Maulana Samiul Haq assassinated in Rawalpindi". Geo News. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  25. ^ "Maulana Samiul Haq assassinated at Rawalpindi residence". Dawn.
  26. ^ "Slain Maulana Samiul Haq laid to rest in Darul Uloom Haqqania". The News International. 3 November 2018.
  27. ^ Ahmed, Jibran; Shahzad, Asif (2 November 2018). "'Father of Taliban' Mullah Sami ul-Haq killed in Pakistan: deputy". Reuters. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  28. ^ a b Farooq, Umer (3 November 2018). "Maulana Samiul Haq laid to rest". The Express Tribune.
  29. ^ "Politicians condemn brutal murder of JUI-S chief Maulana Samiul Haq". Dawn. 2 November 2018.
  30. ^ Naseer, Tahir (3 November 2018). "Maulana Samiul Haq laid to rest, domestic staff interrogated in connection with his murder". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  31. ^ Farhan Zahid, "Post-Mortem Analysis: The Assassination of Taliban Godfather Sami ul Haq" in Militant Leadership Monitor, Volume X, Issue 3 (March 2019), p. 11
  32. ^ Sami-ul-Haq's profile on WorldCat

Further reading

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