Washington: The founder of the Haqqani network, considered to be one of the most violently effective factions of the Taliban, has been dead for nearly a year, a senior member of the group said Friday, days after it emerged that the Afghan insurgency’s overall leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, died more than two years ago.
A US diplomatic official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the United States had not yet confirmed that Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the militant faction that bears his family name, had died. But the official said Haqqani had been seriously ill for years, and that little to nothing has been heard of him “for a while now”.
The Taliban, which confirmed on Thursday that Mullah Omar had died, has yet to make a formal announcement about Haqqani. But like Omar’s passing, the death of Haqqani would be a milestone in the wars that have engulfed Afghanistan since the 1980s.
That he and Omar both could have been dead without the United States or its allies finding out would raise serious questions about the abilities and focus of US intelligence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It also renews questions about the United States’ often fraught alliance with Pakistan, which has long denied sheltering Afghan insurgents and has said nothing of Omar’s reported death.
Haqqani rose to prominence with the US-backed mujahideen rebels who fought the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan. He later allied himself with the Taliban when they took power during the civil war in the 1990s.
Haqqani moved most of his family to Waziristan, one of the northwestern tribal regions in Pakistan, in the mid-1970s, and fully based himself and his organisation there after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. In the years that followed, Haqqani is said to have stepped back from active leadership, ceding control of the militant network to his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who this week was appointed one of the Taliban’s deputy leaders.
The senior Haqqani network member said Haqqani died in December and that he and other members had attended the funeral prayers for him.
The Haqqani network member spoke on the condition of anonymity because he had not been cleared to talk with the news media.