Sirajuddin Haqqani

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Sirajuddin Haqqani is a leader of the Haqqani network, a designated foreign terrorist organization. In September 2021, he was inducted into the cabinet of the newly formed Taliban government as the Minister of Interior Affairs of Afghanistan and became one of the two deputies of Taliban supreme commander, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada. He is wanted by the FBI for questioning.He grew up in Miramshah, North Waziristan, Pakistan. While growing up in Pakistan, he attended Darul Uloom Haqqania Deobandi Islamic seminary in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from where he graduated in Islamic studies.According to a source, in Urdu, his name, Sirajuddin, is translated as light of the religion..His father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, formed the Haqqani network in the late 1970s as an Afghan guerrilla insurgent group to fight against the Soviets, US-led NATO forces, and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government. In 1995, the Haqqani network became part of the Taliban after which the U.S. government termed it to be the most lethal and sophisticated insurgent group. Jalaluddin also served as minister of tribal affairs after the Taliban captured the capital, Kabul, in 1996. A map showing the spread of the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan.According to a Stanford University research paper on the Haqqani network, before heading the network, Sirajuddin engaged in weapons training and distribution by the network. There are reports that this group operates out of Miram Shah in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in northern Pakistan, where they deploy camp facilities for conducting activities such as weapons acquisition, suicide bomber training, and logistical planning for military campaigns. [9]Stanford University.U.S. and Kabul officials have long charged Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence with providing covert shelters for the Taliban and the Haqqani network; however, Pakistan denies any links.Various estimates place the number of group members at 3,000 to over 10,000. In an interview, when Sirajuddin was asked whether there were 10,000 Haqqani fighters, he replied, That figure is actually less than the actual number..Reports state that the network receives funding from a variety of sources, including wealthy Arab Gulf citizens. As a fundraiser, Haqqani has frequently travelled to the Arab Gulf. Haqqani is fluent in Arabic and has developed close relationships with many Arab Gulf regional people and organizations. Moreover, the network generates funds from criminal activities, including the smuggling of mineral supplies from Afghanistan.Apart from its link with the Taliban, the Haqqani network has alliances with many more militant groups, including al-Qaida, Tehreek-i-Taliban in Pakistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, and from 2001 to 2015, the network executed numerous attacks on US-led NATO forces and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government.Sirajuddin Haqqani, along with several of his close relatives including his uncles Ibrahim Haqqani and Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani, began to assume greater command of the group in 2004. After the demise of Jalaluddin in 2018, Sirajuddin became the head of the Haqqani network. Sirajuddin is seen as even more ruthless than his father. Sirajuddin Haqqani presided over a shift towards a more violent and ambitious militant group than that owned by his father, undermining the authority of the Afghan state and Western interests. In contrast to his father, Sirajuddin Haqqani has employed far more lethal strategies, including videos of mass beheadings and brutal assassinations, which were eschewed by the Quetta Shura Taliban under Omar. [10]Stanford University.