#Sirajuddin Haqqani

[trendynewsnow]

An Interview with Sirajuddin Haqqani: Insights into the Taliban's Leadership

A Journey to Speak with Sirajuddin Haqqani For three long years, there was one enigmatic and influential figure in Afghanistan whom I was determined to engage in conversation: Sirajuddin Haqqani. Throughout the U.S.-led military intervention, he earned a notorious reputation as one of the Taliban’s most formidable military tacticians, orchestrating a series of devastating attacks that involved…

[mariacallous]

Al Qaeda is back to its old tricks in Afghanistan. Much as it did before masterminding the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist group is running militant training camps; sharing the profits of the Taliban’s illicit drug, mining, and smuggling enterprises; and funneling the proceeds to affiliated jihadi groups worldwide.

An unpublished report circulating among Western diplomats and U.N. officials details how deeply embedded the group once run by Osama bin Laden is in the Taliban’s operations, as they loot Afghanistan’s natural wealth and steal international aid meant to alleviate the suffering of millions of Afghans.

The report was completed by a private, London-based threat analysis firm whose directors did not want to be identified. A copy was provided to Foreign Policy and its findings verified by independent sources. It is based on research conducted inside Afghanistan in recent months and includes a list of senior al Qaeda operatives and the roles they play in the Taliban’s administration.

To facilitate its ambitions, al Qaeda is raking in tens of millions of dollars a week from gold mines in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan and Takhar provinces that employ tens of thousands of workers and are protected by warlords friendly to the Taliban, the report says. The money represents a 25 percent share in proceeds from gold and gem mines; 11 gold mines are geolocated in the report. The money is shared with al Qaeda by the two Taliban factions: Sirajuddin Haqqani’s Kabul faction and Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s Kandahar faction, suggesting both leaders, widely regarded as archrivals, see a cozy relationship with al Qaeda as furthering their own interests as well as helping to entrench the group’s overall power.

The Taliban’s monthly take from the gold mines tops $25 million, though this money “does not appear in their official budget,” the report says. Quoting on-the-ground sources, it says the money “goes directly into the pockets of top-ranking Taliban officials and their personal networks.” Since the mines began operating in early 2022, al Qaeda’s share has totaled $194.4 million, it says.

After regaining power in August 2021, the Taliban integrated a large number of listed terrorist groups that fought alongside them against the U.S.-supported Afghan republic. The Biden administration, however, has persistently denied that al Qaeda has reconstituted in Afghanistan or even that al Qaeda and the Taliban have maintained their long, close relationship.

Those denials ring hollow as evidence piles up that the Taliban and al Qaeda are as close as ever. The U.N. Security Council and the U.S. Congress-mandated Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) have consistently reported on the Taliban’s symbiotic relationship with dozens of banned terrorist outfits, including al Qaeda.

Few experts believed Taliban leaders’ assurances, during negotiations with former U.S. President Donald Trump that led to the ignominious U.S. retreat, that the group’s relationship with al Qaeda was over; bin Laden’s vision of a global caliphate based in Afghanistan was a guiding principle of the war that returned the Taliban regime, which one Western official in Kabul said differs only from the previous regime in 1996-2001 in that “they are even better at repression.”

The historic relationship hit global headlines when bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed on July 31, 2022, in a U.S. drone strike as he stood by the window of a Kabul villa. The property was linked to Haqqani, the head of the largely autonomous Haqqani network and a member of al Qaeda’s leadership structure. He is also a deputy head of the Taliban and its interior minister, overseeing security. He is believed to harbor ambitions for the top job of supreme leader, with aspirations to become caliph.

Now that they can operate with impunity, the reports says, the Taliban are once again providing al Qaeda commanders and operatives with everything they need, from weapons to wives, housing, passports, and access to the vast smuggling network built up over decades to facilitate the heroin empire that bankrolled the Taliban’s war.

The routes have been repurposed for lower-cost, higher-return methamphetamine, weapons, cash, gold, and other contraband. Militants from Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and the Palestinian territories also circulate through the al Qaeda training camps that have been revived since the Taliban takeover. Security is provided by the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence.

The report includes a list of al Qaeda commanders, some of whom were bin Laden’s lieutenants when he was living in Afghanistan while planning the attacks on the United States. Those atrocities precipitated the U.S.-led invasion that drove him, and the Taliban leadership, into Pakistan, where they were sheltered, funded, and armed by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

The report’s findings “demonstrate that, as expected, the Taliban leadership continues to be willing to protect not only the leadership of al Qaeda but also fighters, including foreign terrorist fighters from a long list of al Qaeda affiliates,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, the senior director of the Berlin- and New York-based Counter Extremism Project and an expert on terrorism. “It is clear that the Taliban have never changed their stance toward international terrorism and, in particular, al Qaeda.”

Many analysts believe President Joe Biden’s decision to stick to Trump’s withdrawal deal led to Afghanistan becoming an incubator of extremism and terrorism. Leaders of neighboring and regional states, including Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and countries in Central Asia, have expressed concern about the threat posed by the Taliban’s transnational ambitions. U.N. figures, including Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett, have repeatedly called out Taliban suppression of rights and freedoms and the imprisonment and killing of perceived opponents.

In February, the George W. Bush Institute released the first report in its three-part Captured State series titled “Corruption and Kleptocracy in Afghanistan Under the Taliban,” which recommends action by the United States and the U.N. to rein in Taliban excesses. It calls on the United States and allies “to pressure foreign enablers of Taliban corruption and reputation laundering to stop facilitating corrupt economic trading activities, illicit trafficking, and moving and stashing personal wealth outside Afghanistan.”

Pointedly, it says the U.N. and other aid organizations “should demand greater accountability for how aid is spent and distributed” and urges international donors to support civil society, which has been decimated by the Taliban.

It’s a reference to the billions of dollars in aid that have been sent to Afghanistan since the republic collapsed—including, controversially, $40 million in cash each week, which has helped keep the local currency stable despite economic implosion. The United States is the biggest supporter, funneling more than $2.5 billion to the country from October 2021 to September 2023, SIGAR said. Foreign Policy has reported extensively on the Taliban’s systematic pilfering of foreign humanitarian aid for redistribution to supporters, which has exacerbated profound poverty.

The Bush Institute paper is one of the few comprehensive studies of the impact of the Taliban’s return to power to publicly call for the group to face consequences for its actions. It suggests, for instance, the enforcement of international travel bans on Taliban leaders, which are easily and often flouted.

Recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan “would reinforce the Taliban’s claim to power and strengthen their position” by giving them even greater access to “cold, hard cash,” the report says, a warning that comes amid growing fears that the United States could be preparing to reopen its Kabul embassy, which the Taliban would see as tacit recognition.

By “capturing the Afghan state, the Taliban have significantly upgraded their access to resources,” the Bush Institute argues, putting the group “in the perfect position now to loot it for their own individual gain.”

That plundered resource wealth also appears to be boosting the coffers of like-minded groups. The London firm’s unpublished report identifies 14 al Qaeda affiliates—most of them listed by the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team—that are directly benefiting from the mining proceeds. They include seven inside Afghanistan (among them, the anti-China East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the anti-Tajikistan Jamaat Ansarullah, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is fighting the Pakistani state) and seven operating elsewhere: al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Qaeda in Yemen, al Qaeda in Iraq, al Qaeda in Syria, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, al Qaeda in the Mahgreb, and al-Shabab, largely active in East Africa.

For Western governments that might be pondering a closer relationship with the Taliban regime or even diplomatic recognition, Schindler of the Counter Extremism Project sounded a note of warning. The Taliban, he said, are “not a viable counterterrorism partner, even on a tactical level.” Instead, the group “remains one of the prime sponsors of terrorism” worldwide.

[isfeed]

What We Learned Talking to the Taliban’s Most Fearsome Leader

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a $10 million American bounty on his head, is now positioning himself as a figure of relative moderation. Source: New York Times What We Learned Talking to the Taliban’s Most Fearsome Leader

[businesspr]

What We Learned Talking to the Taliban’s Most Fearsome Leader

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a $10 million American bounty on his head, is now positioning himself as a figure of relative moderation. source https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/world/asia/afghanistan-haqqani-what-we-learned.html

[norainahmadme-blog]

What We Learned Talking to the Taliban’s Most Fearsome Leader

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who has a $10 million American bounty on his head, is now positioning himself as a figure of relative moderation. Source link

[sa7abnews]

The Taliban is celebrating 3 years in power, but they’re not talking about Afghans

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/16/the-taliban-is-celebrating-3-years-in-power-but-theyre-not-talking-about-afghans/

The Taliban is celebrating 3 years in power, but they’re not talking about Afghans

The Taliban celebrated the third anniversary of their return to power Wednesday at a former U.S. air base in Afghanistan, but there was no mention of the country’s hardships or promises to help the struggling population.Under blue skies and blazing sunshine at the Bagram base — once the center of America’s war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks — members of the Taliban Cabinet lauded achievements such as strengthening Islamic law and establishing a military system that provides “peace and security.”TALIBAN PUBLICLY FLOGS 63 IN AFGHANISTAN, INCLUDING WOMEN, DRAWING UN CONDEMNATIONThe speeches were aimed at an international audience, urging the diaspora to return and for the West to interact and cooperate with the country’s rulers. No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.”The Islamic Emirate eliminated internal differences and expanded the scope of unity and cooperation in the country,” Deputy Prime Minister Maulvi Abdul Kabir said, using the Taliban’s term to describe their government. “No one will be allowed to interfere in internal affairs, and Afghan soil will not be used against any country.”None of the four speakers talked about the challenges facing Afghans in everyday life.Women were barred from the event, including female journalists from The Associated Press, Agence French-Presse and Reuters. The Taliban did not give a reason for barring them.Decades of conflict and instability have left millions of Afghans on the brink of hunger and starvation. Unemployment is high.The Bagram parade was the Taliban’s grandest and most defiant since regaining control of the country in August 2021.The audience of some 10,000 men included senior Taliban officials such as Acting Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob and Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was not at the parade.The Taliban said foreign diplomats also attended, but did not specify who.Aid agencies warn that humanitarian efforts in the country are gravely underfunded as economic collapse and climate change destroy livelihoods.They say that Afghans, particularly women and girls, will suffer if there isn’t more diplomatic engagement with the Taliban.The Bagram parade was also an opportunity to showcase some of the military hardware abandoned by U.S. and NATO-led forces after decades of war, including helicopters, Humvees and tanks.Uniformed soldiers marched with light and heavy machine guns, and a motorcycle formation carried the Taliban flag.Pickup trucks crammed with men of all ages drove through Kabul’s streets in celebration of the takeover. Some men posed for photos with rifles.In a parade in southern Helmand province, men held yellow canisters to represent the type of explosives used in roadside bombings during the war.The Taliban declared Wednesday a national holiday. As in previous years, women did not take part in anniversary festivities.

[arrahmahcom]

Pemimpin Imarah Islam Afghanistan Mengadakan Pembicaraan dengan Pejabat Keamanan Senior

KABUL (Arrahmah.id) – Pada Ahad (14/7/2024), pemimpin Imarah Islam Afghanistan bertemu dengan Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Menteri Pertahanan, Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani, Menteri Dalam Negeri, dan Abdul Haq Wasiq, Direktur Jenderal Intelijen di Kandahar. Zabihullah Mujahid, juru bicara Imarah Islam, mengatakan bahwa pemimpin Imarah Islam memberikan arahan kepada para pejabat keamanan senior…

[blogynews]

Unveiling the Unseen: Taliban's Sensational Warning to Pakistan amidst Cross-Border Ambitions

The powerful interior minister of the Taliban issued a warning to Pakistan against using military force to target a militant group in Afghanistan. This indicates a potential change in stance by an influential faction within the Kabul government. Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is known to have close ties with Pakistan’s spy agency, made these comments in response to Pakistani leaders threatening to…

[blogynewz]

Unveiling the Unseen: Taliban's Sensational Warning to Pakistan amidst Cross-Border Ambitions

The powerful interior minister of the Taliban issued a warning to Pakistan against using military force to target a militant group in Afghanistan. This indicates a potential change in stance by an influential faction within the Kabul government. Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is known to have close ties with Pakistan’s spy agency, made these comments in response to Pakistani leaders threatening to…

[trendynewsnow]

The Evolution of Sirajuddin Haqqani: From Terrorist Leader to Pragmatic Diplomat

The Transformation of Sirajuddin Haqqani For nearly two decades, one figure has loomed large in the collective consciousness of the Afghan populace, evoking a mix of fear and reverence: Sirajuddin Haqqani. To many, he was nothing short of a specter—an embodiment of death and destruction, wielding the power to decide who would survive amidst the chaos of the U.S.-led military campaign. With a…

[blogynewsz]

Unveiling the Unseen: Taliban's Sensational Warning to Pakistan amidst Cross-Border Ambitions

The powerful interior minister of the Taliban issued a warning to Pakistan against using military force to target a militant group in Afghanistan. This indicates a potential change in stance by an influential faction within the Kabul government. Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is known to have close ties with Pakistan’s spy agency, made these comments in response to Pakistani leaders threatening to…

[unitedshowbiznetwork]

Twitter better for 'freedom of speech', says senior Afghan Taliban official

Anas Haqqani (right) with his brother, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Photo: Wakil KOHSAR / AFP/FileSource: AFP PAY ATTENTION: Be the first to follow YEN.com.gh on Threads! Click here! Twitter owner Elon Musk’s freewheeling approach to the platform’s handling of censorship has won support from an unlikely quarter — Afghanistan’s Taliban. Anas Haqqani, a senior Taliban leader without an…

[argus-news]

How A Covert Relationship With The Taliban Backfired For US Ally Pakistan

Almost two years later, relations between the Taliban and Pakistan have soured, terrorist attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have jumped and some Taliban leaders are even seeking to establish ties with Pakistan's archrival, India.

About two weeks after the Taliban retook Afghanistan in 2021, the then head of Pakistan's spy agency arrived at one of Kabul's plushest hotels, smiling, sipping tea and appearing at ease with the militants' return to power.

Lieutenant-General Faiz Hameed of Inter-Services Intelligence had reason to believe Pakistan was about to reap the rewards of clandestinely supporting the Taliban in their fight against US-led forces. In return, Pakistan expected the group to help rein in an offshoot at home.

Almost two years later, relations between the Taliban and Pakistan have soured, terrorist attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have jumped and some Taliban leaders are even seeking to establish ties with Pakistan's archrival, India.

The increased instability is adding to the turmoil in a Pakistan buffeted by simultaneous economic and political crises, as the country edges closer to a default, inflation rages and the military instigates a sweeping crackdown against former premier Imran Khan's political party.

Pakistan saw the Taliban as deeply connected to the TTP and able to persuade it to stop its attacks, people familiar with the matter said. The TTP has long said it wants to overthrow the government in Islamabad.

But some Taliban factions strongly oppose helping Pakistan's efforts to fight the TTP, and many are upset the government in Islamabad didn't recognize their regime, according to people familiar with the situation. Hundreds of Taliban fighters also joined the TTP to pursue another holy war, they said.

Pakistan made a "remarkable" miscalculation, said Farid Mamundzay, Afghanistan's ambassador to India, a holdover from the country's previous regime who doesn't represent the Taliban.

The TTP carried out the most militant attacks on Pakistani soil last year since 2018. This January, the group killed at least 100 people in a suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Peshawar — one of the deadliest attacks in its history. Four people were killed in a suicide car bomb on May 24, which hasn't been claimed by the TTP or other militants.

Some key Taliban members want the group to distance itself from Pakistan and show its independence, people familiar with the matter said. They include Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghanistan's deputy prime minister for economic affairs who spent years in a Pakistani jail after he was captured in 2010 during the war with the US, and Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the defense minister and son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, the people said.

Yaqoob has publicly been leading efforts to build relations with India, including urging the Indian government to train Taliban forces.

Others within the Taliban take different positions. Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada has said Pakistan's establishment is "un-Islamic" and founded on the legacy of its British colonial rulers, according to a January report by the United States Institute of Peace.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister and leader of a powerful faction, brokered a cease-fire last year between Pakistan and the TTP in a bid to secure a lasting peace, people familiar with the matter said. It lasted about six months.

Some of the Taliban fighters helping the TTP have brought over weapons that the US left behind, including M-16s and sniper rifles with night-vision thermal goggles, the people said. Hundreds of TTP fighters released from a Kabul prison by the Taliban after the group retook power also returned to fight in Pakistan, they added.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, a spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, declined to comment. Inter-Services Public Relations, the military's media wing, didn't answer calls or respond to texts seeking comment.

Taliban spokesmen Zabihullah Mujahed and Bilal Karimi didn't answer calls or respond to WhatsApp messages seeking comment. In a statement in February, the TTP said it waged a "sacred war" against Pakistan's army and called on politicians and others not to become an obstacle in this war.

At meetings in Islamabad in May involving Pakistan, China and the Taliban, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the TTP and Pakistan should hold talks, but he didn't suggest a role for the Taliban. Meanwhile, the Taliban agreed with China and Pakistan to extend the Belt and Road Initiative to Afghanistan.

The US withdrawal "gave impetus to TTP activities," Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, a spokesman for Pakistan's army, said in a press conference on April 25. Some 239 people, including 137 army officers and soldiers, have been killed in hundreds of insurgent attacks this year, he said.

On their side, the Taliban are upset that Pakistan hasn't recognized their regime, people familiar with the matter said. But doing so would be difficult for Pakistan given the sanctions on the Taliban and Islamabad's need for the International Monetary Fund to approve a stalled bailout package.

Pakistan is designated a major non-NATO ally by the US. While that confers some military and financial advantages, it includes no mutual defense treaty that would obligate American forces to respond in the event of a military attack. Some US lawmakers over the years have sought to remove the status due in part to Pakistani support for the Taliban.

During the war on terror, Pakistan covertly helped the militant group in their attempts to overthrow a US-backed Afghan government that was friendlier with India, and provided refuge and medical assistance to Taliban leaders and fighters, said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, a think tank.

The TTP is the largest and deadliest of about a dozen insurgent groups in Pakistan, with thousands of fighters hailing from the tribal belt.

The group announced its existence in 2007 after Pakistani security forces launched an operation against a prominent mosque in Islamabad that was suspected of sheltering and training Islamic radicals. More than 100 people died in the violence.

The TTP's attacks are increasing just as Pakistan faces several other major issues. Political tensions are at breaking point. More than 10,000 people linked to Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party were arrested in police raids following protests after Khan was arrested in May. Khan and his wife have been placed on a no-fly list. Inflation is accelerating at the fastest pace in Asia, making it difficult for many of the country's more than 220 million people to pay for fuel and food. And negotiations with the IMF are at a critical stage as the international lender has yet to release the funds.

All things considered, the now-retired ISI chief's confidence in Kabul's Serena Hotel is looking ill-advised.

"Pakistan had long banked on the Taliban being its best strategic bet in Afghanistan - a group willing to help Pakistan pursue its interests, including counterterrorism," Kugelman said. "What Pakistan apparently didn't realize was that the Taliban, once it no longer needed a wartime sanctuary in Pakistan, would assert its independence from its former patron and refuse to do its bidding."

[businesspr]

Is Afghanistan’s Most-Wanted Militant Now Its Best Hope for Change?

Sirajuddin Haqqani has tried to remake himself from blood-soaked jihadist to pragmatic Taliban statesman. Western diplomats are shocked — and enticed. source https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/24/world/asia/afghanistan-sirajuddin-haqqani-taliban.html