Sirajuddin Haqqani is a Taliban fighter and one of the top leaders of the Haqqani Network, a designated foreign terrorist organization. In September 2021, when the Taliban government was formed for the second time, he entered the cabinet as Afghanistan’s interior minister and was appointed one of the deputies of the Taliban’s top commander, Malawi Hibatullah Akhundzada. Sirajuddin Haqqani is on the FBI’s wanted list.
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Wiki/Biography
Sirajuddin Haqqani was born in 1973 or 1980 (age 49 or 42; as of 2022) in Afghanistan or Pakistan. He was brought up in Miramshah, North Waziristan, Pakistan. During his formative years, he attended Darul Uloom Haqqania Deoband Islamic Seminary in Pakistan and graduated in Islamic Studies.
Physical appearance
Height: 5′ 7″
Eye color: dark brown
Hair color: salt and pepper
family
parents and siblings
His father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was an Afghan leader of the Haqqani network who died on September 3, 2018. Jalaluddin also served as Minister of Tribal Affairs in the first Taliban government (1996-2001).
Sirajuddin Haqqani’s father, Jalaluddin Haqqani
Sirajuddin’s father married two women, one was a Pashtun and the other belonged to the United Arab Emirates, and Sirajuddin is from the latter. He has two brothers from both his father’s wives. His brother Anas Haqqani is a senior leader of the Haqqani network.
His brother Mohammad Haqqani (from his father’s Pashtun wife) was also a senior leader of the Haqqani network who was killed in a drone attack on 18 February 2010 in the village of Dande Darpakhel in North Waziristan.
Mohammad Haqqani
wife and children
There is not much information about his marital status.
Religion and Sect
Sirajuddin Haqqani belongs to the Sunni sect of Islam.
Hakan Network
As an Afghan insurgent group, the Haqqani network was formed in the late 1970s by his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, to fight Soviet forces, US-led NATO forces, and the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. By 1995, the Haqqani network had become part of the Taliban, after which the US government called it “the deadliest and most sophisticated insurgent group”.
A map showing the spread of the Haqqani network in Afghanistan
According to a Stanford University report on the Haqqani network, Sirajuddin managed the network’s arms distribution and training before becoming its leader. The group reportedly operates from Miram Shah in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of northern Pakistan, where they set up camps for activities such as arms procurement, training of suicide bombers and logistical planning for military campaigns. U.S. and Kabul officials have frequently informed Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence of providing safe havens for the Taliban and the Haqqani network; However, Pakistan does not accept this fact. Some sources cite the Haqqani network as having a strength of between 3,000 and more than 10,000 fighters; However, in an interview, Sirajuddin said,
This figure is actually less than the real number.”
According to reports, the network is financed by wealthy citizens of the Gulf. Haqqani speaks fluent Arabic and is well connected to many organizations and people in the Arab Gulf, and he often travels to the Arab Gulf to raise funds for the network. The network is also known to generate funds from criminal activities, including the smuggling of mineral resources from Afghanistan. In addition to its alliance with the Taliban, the Haqqani network has ties to many other militant groups, such as al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. The network is known to have carried out numerous attacks against the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and US-led NATO forces since 2001.
Leadership of the Hakan network in a different style
In 2004, Haqqani and several of his relatives, including his uncles Ibrahim Haqqani and Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani, assumed a larger role in the group. Jalaluddin’s death in 2018 led to Sirajuddin replacing him as head of the Haqqani network. Sirajuddin is seen as more ruthless than his father. Sirajuddin Haqqani led the expansion of a militant movement that was more violent and ambitious than his father’s, undermining the authority of the Afghan government and Western interests. Sirajuddin Haqqani is known to use much deadlier tactics than his father, including videos of beheadings and assassinations, tactics that the Quetta Shura Taliban under Omar have shied away from.
Post 9/11 Activities
After 9/11, leaders of the Haqqani network began to use political acts to gain power, rather than engage in a global jihad against the West, as al-Qaeda did. For example, in 2008 he partnered with Abdul Rauf Zakir, a key Afghan commander, who asked the Haqqani network for financial support in exchange for expanding Haqqani’s influence and operations in Kabul and northern provinces such as Takhar, Kunduz, and Baghlan. Years later, Zakir became Sirajuddin Haqqani’s closest confidant, taking over the network’s suicide operations and facilitating his high-profile suicide attacks.
Abdul Rauf Zakir
Military job
As the deputy military leader of the Taliban, Sirajuddin Haqqani fought many wars and battles, including the war on terror (2001-present), the Afghan civil war (1996-2001), the war in Afghanistan (2001-present), the Taliban insurgency (December 2001 – August 2021-1-2020), Operation Zarb (2 021-21-201) and 74-2021-2021-2021-2021-2011-2021-2020, Operation Zarb. Attack on Lebanon.
Wanted by the FBI
The State Department has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest. The FBI wants to question him too. An FBI poster said Haqqani was wanted in connection with a January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including an American. Moreover, according to the FBI, Haqqani coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against US coalition forces in Afghanistan.
A key portfolio in the Taliban’s 2nd term
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan appointed him as the Minister of Interior on September 7, 2021, following the return of the Taliban to the country.
Facts/Trivia
- He has many nicknames like Siraj, Khalifa, Mohammad Siraj, Sarajadin, Cirodjiddin, Seraj, Arkani, Khalifa (Boss) Shahib, Halifa, Ahmed Zia, Sirajuddin Jallaloudine Haqqani, Siraj Haqqani, Serajuddin Haqani, Siraj Haqani, and.
- The Urdu translation of his name, Sirajuddin, means “Light of Religion”.
- The first major attack he planned was on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, which he carried out on January 14, 2008. Six people were killed in the attack, including American Thor David Hesla.
Video camera footage of the attack on the “Serena” hotel on January 14, 2008
- Sirajuddin also admitted that the assassination attempt on Hamid Karzai in April 2008 was also organized and coordinated by him.
- In November 2008, when New York Times reporter David S. When Rod was kidnapped in Afghanistan, it was initially believed that the kidnapping was only for ransom; However, before David could escape, he was finally captured by Sirajuddin Haqqani.
David S. When in Afghanistan in 2009
- According to coalition forces, in late December 2008, Sirajuddin Haqqani and his forces carried out a bombing near an elementary school in Kabul. Although no coalition personnel were injured in the bombing, several school children, an Afghan soldier, and an Afghan security guard were killed.
- Various reports claim that Sirajuddin Haqqani survived a massive US drone attack on him on February 2, 2010.
- According to a report in March 2010, the Quetta Shura of the Taliban named Sirajuddin as one of its top leaders.
- In 2010, Sirajuddin Haqqani released a book titled “Military Lessons for the Mujahideen”. The 144-page book in Pashto advocated beheading and suicide terrorist attacks while legitimizing Western targets.
- In a rare telephone interview he gave to Reuters in September 2011, Sirajuddin said:
Gone are the days when we were hiding in the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Now we feel safer in Afghanistan, except for the Afghan people. High-ranking military and police officers are with us.”
he also said
There are sincere people in the Afghan government who are loyal to the Taliban because they know that our goal is to liberate our homeland from the clutches of the occupation forces.
- On September 5, 2013, Sirajuddin Haqqani’s deputy, Sanjin Zadran, was killed in a US drone strike.
Sanjin Zadran
- In 2015, Akhtar Mansoor was elected as the leader of the Taliban, after which Sirajuddin released a message that said:
My special recommendation to all members of the Islamic Emirate is to maintain internal unity and discipline…”
- In August 2016, Sirajuddin was appointed deputy to the leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada. According to a May 26, 2016 report, Sirajuddin’s role as deputy focused primarily on military matters.
- After The New York Times published an op-ed by Sirajuddin Haqqani on February 20, 2020 titled “What We, the Taliban, Want”, the media house was heavily criticized for providing a platform for terrorists to publish their articles.
- According to British Taliban expert Antonio Guistozi, Sirajuddin tested positive for COVID-19 on May 31, 2020, after which he was absent from the group’s leadership.
- In an interview, Sirajuddin said the Haqqani network had rejected several peace proposals from the United States and the government of President Hamid Karzai in the past because they were an attempt to “create division” between the militant groups. She said,
They offered us very important positions, but we declined, telling them that they would not succeed in their evil designs. They wanted to divide us.”
- On March 5, 2022, he reviewed the new recruits of the Afghan police in Kabul. According to reports, this was Sirajuddin Haqqani’s rare public appearance after a long time.
Sirajuddin Haqqani discusses new Afghan police recruits in Kabul on March 5, 2022
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Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
