A member of Taliban security forces inspects an alleged hideout of the Islamic State group in Sarai-e-Shamali locality of Khair Khana district of Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 18, 2021.
Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua via Getty Images
The influential Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani had been previously targeted by an ISIS affiliate.
The religios leader supported access to education for Afghanistan’s girls and women.
He was killed by a suicide bomber with explosives hidden in an artificial limb.
A prominent Taliban religious leader, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, has been killed by a suicide bomber who hid explosives in an artificial leg, Reuters reports.
Sheikh Haqqani was targeted during a visit to a religious seminary in Kabul on Thursday, According to local reports, per the BBC.
“Very sadly informed that respected cleric (Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani) was martyred in a cowardly attack by enemies,” said Bilal Karimi, a spokesperson for the Taliban administration.
The Taliban said Haqqani’s death is a “very huge loss for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reports.
Sheikh Haqqani, a prominent critic of ISIS, may also have been targeted because he supported the right of girls and women to be educated.
“There is no justification in the sharia [law] to say female education is not allowed. No justification at all,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
He added: “All the religious books have stated female education is permissible and obligatory, because, for example, if a woman gets sick, in an Islamic environment like Afghanistan or Pakistan, and needs treatment, it’s much better if she’s treated by a female doctor.”
Sheikh Haqqani had survived two previous assassination attempts, according to the BBC.
Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, ISIS-K, has become a growing threat to the Taliban regime that now rules Afghanistan, attacking religious minorities and assassinating Taliban officials.