Jalaluddin haqqani biography

Afghan leader of the Haqqani network (1939–2018)

Jalaluddin Haqqani (Pashto: جلال الدين حقاني, romanized: Jalāl al-Dīn Ḥaqqānī) (1939 – 3 September 2018) was an Afghan insurgent commander who founded the Haqqani network, an insurgent group who fought in guerilla warfare against US-led NATO forces and the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government that they supported.

He distinguished himself as an internationally sponsored insurgent fighter in the 1980s during the Soviet–Afghan War, including in Operation Magistral. He earned U.S. praise and was called "goodness personified" by the U.S. officials. US officials have admitted that during the Soviet–Afghan War, he was a prized asset of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan called Jalaluddin Haqqani a "freedom fighter" during the Soviet–Afghan War. By 2004, he was directing pro-Taliban insurgent group to launch a holy war in Afghanistan. In 2016, U.S. Lieutenant General John W. Nicholson Jr. claimed that the U.S. and NATO were not targeting Haqqani's network in Afghanistan.

Media reports emerged in late July 2015 that Haqqani had died the previous year. According to the reports, he died in Afghanistan and was buried in Khost Province of Afghanistan. These reports were denied by the Taliban and some members of the Haqqani family. On 3 September 2018, the Taliban released a statement announcing that Haqqani had died after a long illness in Afghanistan.

Early life

Jalaluddin was born in 1939 in the village of Karezgay in the Zadran District of Paktia Province, Afghanistan. He was an ethnic Pashtun from the Zadran tribe of Khost. His father was a wealthy landowner and trader. The family later moved to Sultankhel. He started advanced religious studies at Darul Uloom Haqqania, a Deobandi Islamic

Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani currently serves as the Minister of Interior in the Taliban government, overseeing the country's police forces and various specialized units, which are reportedly estimated to number over 230,000 personnel. Additionally, he serves as the leader of the Haqqani Network, a role he assumed after the death of his father, Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani, a prominent figure in the Afghan jihadist landscape.

Jalaluddin initially served as a commander in the Hezb-e-Islami group led by Mawlawi Mohammad Younus Khalis but quickly gained notoriety as a powerbroker aligned with Pakistan. In the mid-1990s, he joined forces with the Taliban and served as the Minister of Tribal Affairs during the first Taliban regime. After the U.S. ouster of the Taliban's regime in 2001, Jalaluddin played a crucial role in facilitating the escape of then-al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan.

After Jalaluddin's death in 2018, his son Sirajuddin Haqqani assumed leadership of the Haqqani Network. Sirajuddin, who had joined the military ranks in 2003, was initially active in Khost province, where he managed military operations in 2006. He quickly rose through the Taliban's ranks, becoming one of two deputies of the Taliban movement in 2016 under Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, while also leading the Haqqani Network. In addition to maintaining a close working relationship with al-Qaeda, the Haqqani family has historical ties to Pakistan and has received support from its military and intelligence services.

In September 2012, the U.S. government designated the Haqqani Network as a foreign terrorist organization. In 2014, Sirajuddin Haqqani was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), with a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his capture. He is also listed on several sanctions lists, including the United Nations under the designation TAi.144. Born in December 1979, Sirajuddin Haqqani grew up in Miran Shah, in Pakista

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Washington, D.C., September 11, 2012 – In the wake of the State Department's recent designation of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani Network as a terrorist organization, declassified documents posted today – on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks – by the National Security Archive offer new insight into the Haqqani family's long history with militancy. The records on Network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani detail direct meetings between Haqqani and U.S. diplomats, [Doc 4] his role as a Taliban military commander, [Doc 2] and intimate ties to foreign militants, [Doc 1] al-Qaeda connections, [Doc 5] as well as his potentially critical function as a major advocate for Osama bin Laden within the Taliban administration. [Doc 3]

The released documents include a confession from Haqqani that he had enjoyed very amicable relations with U.S. officials during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, but that the friendship soured after the 1998 U.S. bombing of a Haqqani-linked terrorist camp in Khost, Afghanistan, undertaken by President Bill Clinton in retaliation for al-Qaeda attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Although the U.S. decided to officially declare the Haqqani Network a terrorist organization only on September 7, 2012, Haqqani's ties to extremism and al-Qaeda date back to the Soviet intervention and the founding of al-Qaeda. All major leaders in the Haqqani group had already been identified as al-Qaeda and Taliban affiliates and sanctioned by the UN at the request of Washington. [Doc 6]

The National Security Archive obtained the documents below through the Freedom of Information Act.

Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Afghan founder of the militant Haqqani network, died at least a year ago, sources close to the group have told the BBC.

Haqqani died after a long illness and was buried in Afghanistan, the sources added.

Rumours about Haqqani's death have circulated for some years and can still not be independently confirmed.

The latest report comes a day after the Taliban acknowledged that its leader, Mullah Omar, was dead.

Reports of Haqqani's death, quoting Taliban sources, also appeared in Pakistani media on Friday. One senior Afghan official said he had died six years ago.

The network has never confirmed the death of its founder. A man linked to the family denied Friday's reports, telling the BBC that Jalaluddin Haqqani was still alive but ill.

The Haqqani network - based in the tribal regions of Pakistan with links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban - has been behind many of the co-ordinated attacks on Afghan and Nato forces in recent years.

Haqqani's son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, has long been thought to be in de facto control of the group and has just been announced as a deputy leader of the Taliban.