After 'Jihad University' founder Sami-Ul Haq's assassination, Pakistan PM Imran Khan calls him a "great religious scholar" and orders an inquiry

Sami-Ul Haq, a senior and divisive Pakistani politician who was known as the 'Father of Taliban' for the pivotal role he played in movement's/quasi-government's origin, rise and interface with the Pakistani government, was assassinated in Nowshera in Pakistan on Friday.

Haq, 80, was stabbed multiple times at his residence and succumbed to his injuries in the Rawalpindi hospital to which he had been rushed.

Born in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in British India, Haq was considered to be a senior religio-political figure and had twice been elected to the Pakistan Senate, from 1985 to 1991 and again from 1991 to 1997. He was also widely considered to be the 'Father of Taliban', notably, for heading the Darul Uloom Haqqania, which is informally, but widely, referred to as 'University of Jihad'.

The reason behind the twin monikers is easily explained by the fact that the University of Jihad counts many well-known terrorists among its alumni, including former Afghan Taliban chiefs Mullah Omar and Mullah Mansoor, Haqqani network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, and others. Mullah Omar, in fact, had allegedly even been accorded an 'honorary doctorate' by Jihad University

Furthermore, Sami Ul Haq was also connected to both Hafiz Saeed and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa as he led an umbrella coalition of groups to which the JuD was affiliated, besides being personally close to Saeed, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, and Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin. He was credited with giving both of them space and for being responsible for their growth. 

Maulana Sami Ul Haq's endeavours were also supported, officially and with funding, by (now) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's PTI party, which, in June 2016, via a regional government it administered, infused a massive $3 million fund into Jihad University. This explains Imran Khan's statement following Sami-Ul Haq's killing, wherein Khan condemned the brutal killing and said that Pakistan had lost a great religious scholar, before ordering an inquiry and seeking a report.

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