A globally designated terrorist- Sirajuddin Haqqani- has been named the interior minister of the new interim government. And it’s not a good news for India.
After a long wait of three weeks, and multiple reports of infighting, the Taliban on Tuesday announced an “interim government” of “Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan”.
In the hardline all-male cabinet, major portfolios are given to senior Taliban figures, some of whom are notorious for attacks on US forces over the last two decades.
One such figure is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, a sub-set of the Taliban organisation, and a scion of the Haqqani clan.
Sirajuddin Haqqani has been named the interior minister of the new interim government. He’s been a senior leader of Taliban since 2016.
Who’s Sirajuddin Haqqani?
Haqqani is a radical Islamist and one of the two deputies of Taliban supreme commander, Maulavi Hibatullah Akhundzada. As deputy leader of the Taliban, he oversaw armed combat against American and coalition forces, reportedly from a base within North Waziristan District in Pakistan. Haqqani Network has been indulged in various terrorist activities throughout the region.
Haqqani is a son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Pashtun mujahid and military leader of pro-Taliban forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He spent his childhood in Miramshah, North Waziristan, Pakistan, and attended Darul Uloom Haqqania Deobandi Islamic seminary in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. His younger brother Mohammad Haqqani, also a member of the network, died in a drone attack on February 18, 2010, in Dande Darpakhel, a village in North Waziristan.
The name “Haqqani” was taken from the Darul Uloom Haqqania, attended by many leading figures of the Haqqani network. Many prominent positions in the Pakistani and Afghan wings of the Taliban organization have also been held by graduates of the seminary.
Haqqani’s Terror Activities
Sirajuddin Haqqani has admitted planning the January 14, 2008 attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul. The attack killed six people, including an American citizen. Haqqani has also confessed his involvement in planning and organizing the assassination attempt on then Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in April 2008.
The Haqqani network has been accused by coalition forces of carrying out the late December 2008 bombing in Kabul at a barracks near an elementary school that killed several schoolchildren, an Afghan soldier, and an Afghan guard.
Sirajuddin Haqqani was involved in the suicide bombing attack against a Police Academy bus in Kabul on 18 June 2007 which killed 35 police officers
Haqqani is also accused of kidnapping The New York Times reporter David S. Rohde. In March 2010, Haqqani was described as one of the leaders on the “Taliban’s Quetta Shura”, a council of leaders of the Afghan Taliban believed to be based from about 2001 in the city of Quetta in the Balochistan province of Pakistan, after the Taliban regime was toppled by coalition forces back then.
UN- Designated Terorist
According to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) website, Sirajuddin Haqqani was listed as terrorist on 13 September 2007. The reason for Haqqani’s listing is stated as “being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of”, “recruiting for” or “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” the Taliban, Al-Qaida and Jaish-i-Mohammed.”
Haqqani’s profile on the UNSC website further says: “Sirajuddin Jallaloudine Haqqani is one of the most prominent, influential, charismatic and experienced leaders within the Haqqani Network, a group of fighters with a close association with both the Taliban and Al-Qaida, and has been one of the major operational commanders of the network since 2004. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Sirajuddin Haqqani took control of the Haqqani Network and has since then led the group into the forefront of insurgent activities in Afghanistan.”
The UNSC listing has noted that Sirajuddin Haqqani derives much of his power and authority from his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former minister in Taliban regime, who was a Taliban military commander and a go-between for Al-Qaida and the Taliban on both sides of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. During his tenure as a Minister of the Taliban regime, Jalaluddin Haqqani established very close links with Al-Qaida.
FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’
Sirajuddin Haqqani is on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s ‘most wanted’ list, with a bounty of up to $10 million on his head. The United States terms him as a “specially designated global terrorist” with close ties to al Qaeda.
According to Haqqani’s profile on FBI website, the new Afghan interior minister is known by several aliases – including Siraj, Khalifa, Mohammad Siraj, Sarajadin, Cirodjiddin, Seraj, Arkani, and Khalifa Shahib.
The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading directly to the arrest of Sirajuddin Haqqani.
The remarks on Haqqani in his FBI profile say “Haqqani is thought to stay in Pakistan, specifically the Miram Shah, North Waziristan, Pakistan, area. He is reportedly a senior leader of the Haqqani network, and maintains close ties to the Taliban and al Qaeda.”
The FBI states that Sirajuddin Haqqani is wanted for questioning in connection with the January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed six people, including an American citizen.”He is believed to have coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Haqqani also allegedly was involved in the planning of the assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2008.”
The website also warns that Haqqani “should be considered armed and dangerous”.
Concerns for India
Apart from the Haqqani network’s close ties with the Al-Qaeda and Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI, the group has repeatedly targeted Indian infrastructure and construction projects in Afghanistan,” and was responsible, among other incidents, for the attacks against the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008 and 2009.
A 2020 paper by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said the “Haqqani group, remains firmly anti-Indian” and that “supported by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, they have done the bidding of the ISI for a very long time”.
Now that Sirajuddin Haqqani is holding an important position in the new Afghan government, his presence in such powerful post of interior minister becomes an issue of concern for India.
At a United Nations Security Council meeting following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar sought to flag how “events unfolding in Afghanistan have naturally enhanced global concerns about their implications for both regional and international security”
“The heightened activities of the proscribed Haqqani Network justify this growing anxiety. Whether it is in Afghanistan or against India, groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to operate with both impunity and encouragement,” Jaishankar said at the UNSC meeting, adding that “we must never countenance sanctuaries for terrorists or overlook their raising of resources”.
Though it remains to be seen whether India recognises the new Taliban government in Afghanistan or refuses to recognise their government like it did during 1996-2001, the visible control of Haqqani network and Sirajuddin Haqqani over the Taliban government will certainly be an issue of concern.
India Warns Bordering States
Perhaps sensing the inclusion of such pro-Pakistan elements in Afghan government, the Indian government warned of possible infiltration by battle-hardened militants into India along the Afghanistan border taking advantage of the weak and porous security systems there.
Highly placed official sources told The Hindu in Chennai on September 5 that a Central agency, in an alert sent to all States and Central Armed Paramilitary Forces, has cautioned that armed terrorists owing allegiance to ISIS-K, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed could attempt to aggressively infiltrate into India, particularly Jammu & Kashmir.
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