Sami ul-Haq was prepared to mediate Afghan peace talks, son says

Sami, known as the “Father of the Taliban” for having taught some of their leaders, was stabbed to death by unknown attackers in his residence in Islamabad’s outskirts.
“My father was extending moral and political support to Taliban and all the stakeholders had tasked him to mediate for Afghan peace,” Jamiat Ulema Islam-Sami, Hamid ul-Haq, said as quoted by local media . “Foreign agents killed him [Maulana Sami] when he was all prepared to negotiate between the [Afghan] stakeholders.”
The killing happened a month after an Afghan delegation asked him to mediate between the Afghan government and the Taliban to help resolve the 17-year-long conflict. At the meeting, Haq reportedly said that the Afghan issue was very complicated and its resolution was not an easy task for him.
Sami has run the Darul Uloom Haqqani seminary in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakthunkhwa province, near the Afghan border, for decades. His students included also Taliban founder Mullah Omar.