Sirajuddin Haqqani

Sirajuddin Haqqani is the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Pashtun mujahid and military leader of pro-Taliban forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Born in December 1979, Sirajuddin, who has brothers from both of his father's wives, Jalaluddin having also married an Arab woman whose children live with her in the United Arab Emirates, grew up in Pakistan. Like his other siblings, he was initially homeschooled by his father before enrolling at the Anjuman Uloom Al-Qur’an, a madrasa in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in 1984, at the age of 5.[16]

He spent his childhood in Miramshah, North Waziristan, Pakistan, and later attended Darul Uloom Haqqania, an influential Deobandi Islamic seminary in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, known to produce many graduates who ultimately join the Talibans.[17]

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.[18]

The Arabic of the English translation of Sirajuddin is سراج الدين‎. According to one source, which provides the translation within Urdu, the name has the meaning light of the religion.[19] The name Siraj, converted to Arabic, is سِرَاج‎, which similarly has the meaning of any object which produces light, or light itself, i.e. a cresset, lamp, a candle, or again, light itself, and accordingly, the Sun. Siraj is a Quranic name, in that it is used four times within the Quran, and the word is also used to describe Prophet Mohammad.[20][21]

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.[22][23]

Haqqani has admitted planning the January 14, 2008 attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including American citizen Thor David Hesla.[15] Haqqani confessed his organization and direction of the planning of an attempt to assassinate Hamid Karzai, planned for April 2008.[11][15] His forces have 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; no coalition personnel were affected.

In November 2008, New York Times reporter David S. Rohde was kidnapped in Afghanistan. His initial captors are believed to have been solely interested in a ransom. Sirajuddin Haqqani is reported to have been Rohde's last captor prior to his escape.[24]

Several reports indicated that Haqqani was targeted in a massive U.S. drone attack on February 2, 2010,[25] but that he was not present in the area affected by the attack.[26]

In March 2010, Haqqani was described as one of the leaders on the "Taliban's Quetta Shura".[27] Sirajuddin Haqqani's deputy, Sangeen Zadran, was killed by a US drone strike on 5 September 2013.[28]

By as early as 2008,[23] but certainly by 2016, Jalaluddin Haqqani, due to illness,[29] had turned over control of the Haqqani network to his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani.[30][31] As such Sirajuddin Haqqani served as a deputy to Taliban head Mawlawi Hibatullah, and was primarily involved in military affairs.[32]

On May 31, 2020, British Taliban expert Antonio Guistozzi told Foreign Policy that Sirajuddin Haqqani was infected with COVID-19, which resulted in him being absent from the group's leadership mix.[33]

After the Taliban retook control of the country, he was appointed as Minister of Interior of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, on 7 September 2021.[34]

In 2010, Haqqani released a 144-page Pashto-language book, a training manual entitled Military Lessons for the Benefit of the Mujahedeen, where he appears more radical than the Talibans, as it shows influences from al-Qaida, supporting beheading and suicide bombings while legitimizing targeting the West, asking Muslims there to "blend in, shave, wear Western dress, be patient."[35] Writing in November 2011, an analyst said some 10,000 copies of the book were printed and distributed in Afghanistan and Pakistan in a single month, describing Haqqani’s work as being "printed on high-quality paper, with black-and-white photos and solidly bound, the manual for guerrillas and terrorists opens with directions for how to set up a jihadi cell, how to obtain financing, how to recruit members, and how to train them", also containing details about deadly weapons, how to make and use explosive devices and which infrastructure to target, such as railroad tracks, bridges and more.[36]

When Akhtar Mansour was elected as the new leader of the Taliban in 2015, a communication was posted quoting Sirajuddin Haqqani:[37]

...My particular recommendation to all members of the Islamic Emirate is to maintain their internal unity and discipline...

Sirajuddin Haqqani wrote an opinion piece titled "What We, the Taliban, Want", which appeared in the New York Times on February 20, 2020, sparking a controversy that terrorists were given the opportunity to write articles.

• Shahzad, Syed Saleem (9 September 2008). "US's 'good' war hits Pakistan hard". Asia Times Online. Archived from the original on 9 September 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• "Transcript of Siraj Haqqani's interview". BBC News. 8 October 2011.