| Jalaluddin Haqqani جلال الدين حقاني |
|
|---|---|
| Born | c.1950 Paktia Province, Afghanistan |
| Allegiance | Haqqani network, Mujahideen |
| Years of service | 1970's to present |
| Battles/wars | |
| Relations | Sirajuddin Haqqani (son) |
Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani (Arabic: جلال الدين حقاني) (born c. 1950) is the leader of the Haqqani network, an insurgent group fighting against US-led NATO forces and the government of Afghanistan. He also fought in the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan, including in the Operation Magistral. By 2004, he was directing pro-Taliban militants to launch a holy war in Afghanistan and hit government targets inside Pakistan.[1] Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars, explains that Haqqani introduced suicide bombing in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.[2][3]
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Haqqani was born in or about 1950 in the Paktia Province of Afghanistan. He is an ethnic Pashtun from the Jadran tribe. After King Zahir Shah's exile and President Daoud Khan rise to power in 1973, the political situation in Afghanistan was slowly beginning to change. A number of parties such as the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and others were seeking power. Haqqani was one of them, and after becoming suspected of plots against the government he went into exile and based himself in and around Miranshah, Pakistan. From there he began to form a rebellion against the government of Daoud Khan in 1975.[4] After the 1978 Marxist revolution by the PDPA, Haqqani joined the Hezb-i Islami of Mawlawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis.[1] It was during this time that Haqqani began to build a relationship with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy network.[2]
In the 1980s, Jalaluddin Haqqani was cultivated as a "unilateral" asset of the CIA and received tens of thousands of dollars in cash for his work in fighting the Soviet-led Afghan forces in Afghanistan, according to an account in The Bin Ladens, a 2008 book by Steve Coll. He reputedly attracted generous support from prosperous Arab countries compared to other resistance leaders.[5] At that time, Haqqani helped and protected Osama bin Laden, who was building his own militia (al Qaida) to fight Soviet-backed Afghanistan.[6]
The influential U.S. Congressman, Charlie Wilson, who helped to direct tens of millions dollars to the Afghan resistance, was so enamored of Haqqani that he referred to him as "goodness personified".[7] He was a key US and Pakistani ally in resisting the Soviet-backed Afghanistan. Some news media outlets report that Haqqani even received an invitation to, and perhaps even visited, President Ronald Reagan's White House,[8][9][10] although photographs erroneously reported to show evidence of this meeting have cast doubt that Haqqani ever visited the US.[11][12] (The pictures originally purporting to show this meeting are, in fact, of Mohammad Yunus Khalis.)[13][14][15]
During the rule of Najibullah in 1991, Haqqani was the first resistance leader to capture the city of Khost from the Afghan government. After the fall of Kabul to the Mujahideen forces in 1992, he was appointed Justice Minister of the Islamic State of Afghanistan.
Haqqani was not originally a member of the Taliban. In 1995, just prior to the Taliban's occupation of Kabul, he switched his allegiance to them. In 1996-97, he served as a Taliban military commander north of Kabul, and was accused of ethnic cleansing against local Tajik populations. During the Taliban government, he served as the Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs and governor of Paktia Province.[16]
In October 2001, Haqqani was named the Taliban's military commander. He may have had a role in expediting the escape of Osama Bin Laden. With his base in Khost under repeated American air attack, it is believed that in November or December of that year he crossed the Durand Line border into the Waziristan region of Pakistan. Four Guantanamo detainees -- Abib Sarajuddin, Khan Zaman, Gul Zaman and Mohammad Gul -- were captured and held because American intelligence officials received a report that one of them had briefly hosted Haqqani shortly after the fall of the Taliban.[16][17][18][19] After the Karzai administration was formed in December 2001, in which many former warlords, mujahideen, and others took part, Interim-President Hamid Karzai decided to offer Haqqani a position in government but was rejected by Haqqani.[1]
In 2008, CIA officials confronted Pakistani officials with evidence of ties between Inter-Services Intelligence and Jalaluddin Haqqani[20] but the ISI denied the allegations.[21] A September 2008 airstrike which targeted Haqqani, resulted in the deaths of between ten and twenty-three people. The US missile strike hit the house of Haqqani in the village Dandi Darpa Khail in North Waziristan and a close-by seminary.[22][23] The madrasah, however, was closed and Haqqani had previously left the area.[23][24] Haqqani has been accused by the United States of involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul and the February 2009 Kabul raids.[25]
The success of the mujahideen fighters in the two-year Waziristan Conflict against the Pakistani para-military forces pressured the government to agree to the 2006 Waziristan Accord. In the absence of political will to confront militants with regular Pakistan Army units, a cease-fire agreement (allowing Taliban fighters to operate with impunity in Waziristan as long as Pakistani law is followed and the Taliban do not launch raids into neighboring Afghanistan) was reached. The local Taliban, identified by some as the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan,[26] appear to have been strengthened by the cease-fire agreement, as well as the release of some fighters detained by the Pakistani government at the start of hostilities.
Haqqani along with son Sirajuddin are currently the commanders of the Haqqani network, which is believed to be based in Waziristan, Pakistan.[27] The network is made up of insurgent-suicide bombers waging a jihad against US-led NATO forces and the Islamic republic of Afghanistan. On October 16, 2011, "Operation Knife Edge" was launched by NATO and Afghan forces against the Haqqani network in south-eastern Afghanistan. Afghan Defense Minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, explained that the operation will "help eliminate the insurgents before they struck in areas along the troubled frontier".[28]
Haqqani is fluent in Persian[29], Arabic[30], Urdu and his native Pashto language.