RAWALPINDI: Former senator and chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Maulana Samiul Haq was assassinated at his house in the strictly guarded Bahria Town’s Safari Villas II on Friday evening, his son and police confirmed.

His son, Maulana Hamid-ul-Haq, said that Maulana Sami was in his bedroom when unidentified persons entered the house and stabbed him multiple times. He was rushed to the Safari hospital, which is situated 300 metres from his residence, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival, he told the media.

Maulana Sami had been facing a threat to his life but he refused to keep a police security guard with him, a police official said.

His spokesman, Maulana Yousuf Shah, told Dawn that Maulana Sami had come to the city only a day before his assassination. A student and attendant of the 81-year-old Maulana, Ahmed Shah, who stayed with him in his house, went to a filtration plant to fetch water at around 6.30pm when some assailants entered the house and attacked him, the spokesman added.

Body taken to native Akora Khattak for funeral today

As his attendant returned home 10 minutes later, he found Maulana Sami lying in a pool of blood, said Maulana Yousuf. He said his student could not ascertain the identity of the attackers or their motive for the killing. The spokesman for the ex-senator said that Maulana Sami had come to Rawalpindi on Thursday night as he was scheduled to participate in a ‘procession’ in Islamabad on Friday. But due to a lockdown, he could not attend the procession against the acquittal of Aasia Bibi by the Supreme Court, he added.

An initial police investigation report suggested that Maulana Sami was resting in his bedroom on the second floor of his house in Safari Villas II when he was ruthlessly stabbed by unidentified persons. “Maulana Sami was stabbed with a sharp-edged weapon at least four times in his chest, face and shoulder,” said a police official requesting anonymity.

He said an exact number of attackers was yet to be ascertained. He said CCTV footage of Bahria Town’s entry gates had been collected by police investigators in order to identify the killers.

“Maulana sahib had been intimated by top security officials about threat to his life, but he didn’t prefer to keep police security,” he added.

A security source disclosed that the attacker was “aggressive”, as he stabbed “ruthlessly” in Maulana Sami’s chest, face and left shoulder. However, he added, investigation was under way into four different directions including the possibility of some personal enmity or involvement of foreign element.

The source said the attacker took only 10 minutes to enter the house, reach Maulana Sami’s bedroom on the second floor, attack him at least four times and leave the premises before the return of the “Maulana’s guard”.

City Police Officer Abbas Ahsan along with other senior police officials and intelligence officials rushed to the crime-scene following the murder and collected evidences. According to the sources, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of police has also been involved in the investigation.

At the Safari hospital, the family of Maulana Sami refused to allow a post-mortem examination as police tried to convince them to shift the corpse to district headquarters hospital. The relatives later took his body from the Safari hospital to his native town, Akora Khattak, where his funeral is scheduled to be held on Saturday afternoon.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2018