Bomb kills six at Pak Islamic seminary

A bomb blast at an Islamic seminary in northwestern Pakistan known as a historic training ground for the Afghan Taliban killed six worshippers during Friday prayers, police said yesterday.

Several others were wounded including the head of the religious school, Maulana Hamid-ul-Haq, son of the late Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, considered the father of the Taliban. Regional police officer Najeebur Rahman said Haq was in critical condition.

Tucked away in a Pakistani town off the main motorway to the Afghan border, Darul Uloom Haqqania university was the launch pad for the Taliban movement in the 1990s and is still often described as an incubator for radical Islamists.