Syeda Mazhar
On November 2, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, a Pakistani religious leader, was found dead in his residence in Rawalpindi. The radical cleric openly supported the Taliban in its fight against the Afghan government and the United States. Due to his strong ideological support for and close connection to the Taliban, Maulana was known as “the Father of Taliban.”
Controversially the Afghan officials, including Parliament members, have called his death a big step toward peace in Afghanistan while Islamabad and the Taliban have called it a big loss for the country.
The assassination comes at a crucial time when protests have erupted across the country against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of blasphemy. He wanted to be a part of the sit-ins against the release of Aasia Bibi, but decided against it after seeing the roadblocks, said his son Moulana Hamidul Haq.
Police says that the motive behind the killing was not immediately known and no group has so far claimed responsibly for the attack. The killing prompted scores of Sami ul-Haq’s supporters to riot, damaging shops and vehicles in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The cleric’s family appealed to his followers to remain peaceful.
For decades, Sami ul-Haq ran an Islamic school, the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary, which educated several key Taliban leaders.The madrasah is located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan’s northwest.One of his students from the 1980s, known later as Mullah Mohammad Omar, went on to found the Taliban, which seized power in Afghanistan in 1996 after years of chaos and civil war following the Soviet military’s withdrawal. He was the head of his faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam party and was twice elected as a member of the Senate, the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament. In recent weeks, dozens of Afghan clerics had appealed to Sami ul-Haq to use his influence with Afghanistan’s Taliban to help convince the militant group to begin peace negotiations.
While in Afghanistan, the U.S. and Afghan governments had started a fresh peace process with the Afghan Taliban. Just weeks ago, Gen. Abdul Raziq, a famously anti-Taliban Afghan police chief, was murdered in Kandahar. Many in Pakistan thus believe that Haq’s death was revenge for Raziq’s killing and that the assassination was plotted by NDS. Because of splits within the Taliban, Haq had lost any real control over the group. Yet as a spiritual leader, and with his pupils chairing the highest offices in the Taliban, he had a considerable influence. His death may not affect the peace talk going on between the Afghan Taliban and the United States, but his murder could have negative consequences for the already-fragile security of Afghanistan thus benefitting India.
His death comes when some signs of progress in the long-stalled Afghan peace process had started showing. In February Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced an unprecedented offer to the Afghan Taliban. He pledged that the Afghan government would recognize the group as a legitimate political party if they gave up violence. As always, the Taliban showed no interest in talking to the government. But in recent months, after the United States engaged with the Taliban over peace talks, new hope has been injected into the Afghan peace process which was irking RAW.
On October 12, Zalmy Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for the Afghan peace process, met with Taliban representatives in Doha, where they discussed ending the 17-year war in Afghanistan. The Taliban, who always said they would never come to the negotiation table until the American-led NATO forces leave Afghanistan, have now agreed to discuss peace talks. In a statement sent to media the Taliban spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that both parties agreed to keep organizing such meetings. However, the presence of foreign troops in the country was a “big hurdle,” he added.
In order to make the peace process effective, the Afghan-born Khalilzad also visited Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, the countries exercising a strong influence on the Taliban.
There could be long-term consequences for Afghanistan’s security. The peace process in Afghanistan is less likely to be impacted, for the Taliban have their own internal controversies to deal with already. Also, the Taliban’s prerequisite for ending the conflict in Afghanistan is the exit of American troops, which is not possible at least in the near future. Haq has died but his madrasa and his ideology are still alive. His death will hardly have an impact on the political leadership of the Taliban, yet on the ground it will have consequences. Unlike the high-ranking Taliban, foot soldiers give more importance to ideology, rather than politics, broadly speaking. That could lead to an upswing in violence, unless quick steps are taken to prevent it.
