A suicide bomber detonated his explosives during noon prayers at the Darul Uloom Haqqania madrasa in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least six worshippers and wounding more than 12, police in the region said.
Haqqania Madrasa is located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It is home to several thousand students. It is one of the largest and most respected Islamic madrasas in South Asia. Top leaders of the Afghan Taliban have also studied at the madrasa in the city of Akora Khattak.
The head of the madrasa, Maulana Hamidul Haque, is among the dead. Local hospital authorities fear that the death toll could rise.
Provincial police chief Zulfiqar Hamid confirmed the casualties and said an investigation into the bombing was underway.
A statement from Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif's office said he condemned the incident as a "cowardly and heinous terrorist attack."
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, but the Islamic State (IS) regional group, Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS, is suspected.
The United Nations said the Afghanistan-based group has claimed responsibility for other madrassa attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
ISIS has been regularly carrying out major attacks in recent months against leaders and religious leaders affiliated with the Taliban government in Kabul.
A UN Security Council assessment this month called IS the "greatest regional terrorist threat."
The report said that in addition to attacks on Taliban authorities and Afghan religious minorities, IS was carrying out attacks as far away as Europe and was "actively seeking to recruit from Central Asian countries bordering Afghanistan."
