Taliban officials say an investigation is underway after Rahimullah Haqqani was killed in a seminar bombing.
A prominent Taliban religious leader, Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, was killed in a bomb attack at a seminary in Kabul, Taliban officials said.
“It is with great sadness that I informed this distinguished minister of this [Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani] was killed in a cowardly attack by enemies,” Bilal Karimi, a spokesman for the Taliban government, said Thursday.
The armed group ISIL (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Portal news agency, citing four Taliban sources, said the attacker was someone who previously lost his leg and hid the explosives in a plastic prosthetic leg.
“We are investigating who this … person was and who brought him to this important place to enter Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani’s personal office. It is a very great loss for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” said a senior Taliban official at the Interior Ministry, referring to the group’s name for its administration.
Later on Thursday, ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channels and said the bomber detonated an explosive vest in the scholar’s office.
Haqqani is one of the “most prominent supporters of the Taliban and one of the biggest of them inciting the fight,” monitoring group SITE said, translating a statement from ISIL.
Haqqani was a prominent Taliban scholar who had survived previous attacks, including a large blast in the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar in 2020 claimed by the ISIL group that killed at least seven people.
Many Taliban officials took to social media to express their condolences.
“You have fulfilled your responsibility. Fate cannot be avoided but the Muslim community is orphaned,” tweeted Mobin Khan, a former spokesman for the Kabul police.
A US-led invasion toppled the Taliban government following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Since returning to power a year ago, the Taliban say they have restored security.
However, regular attacks by armed groups have taken place in recent months, many alleged by an ISIL affiliate called Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K).
Recently, the group has escalated attacks on mosques and minorities across Afghanistan. In June, ISKP claimed responsibility for an attack on a Sikh temple in Kabul that killed two people.
The ISIL branch, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2014, is considered the greatest security challenge for the country’s Taliban government.