Taliban says Haqqani Network founder dead

Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the militant Haqqani Network, one of the most powerful and feared groups in the Afghan insurgency, has died after a long illness, the Taliban said on Tuesday.

Haqqani, who founded the network in the 1970s, gave up operational leadership of the group some years ago to his son Sirajuddin, who is now deputy leader of the Afghan Taliban, with a $5 million US bounty on his head.

“Haqqani had become quite old and was suffering from different health problems,” said one Taliban source.

The Taliban issued a statement on Haqqani’s death but did not say where or when he died but said he had been ill and bed-ridden for several years.

Defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said the death was not expected to mean any major change for the Haqqani network, blamed by Afghan and US security officials for some of the most devastating suicide attacks of the past decade.

Haqqani achieved prominence as a guerrilla leader in the US-backed campaign against Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan during the 1980s but later allied himself with the Taliban, fighting American troops after the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

Haqqani is considered to have introduced suicide bombing to Afghanistan, where it was previously unknown, and his group became notorious for complex, well-organised attacks on both Afghan and US military, as well as civilian targets and high-profile kidnappings.

Jalaluddin Haqqani’s death has been reported a number of times over recent years and the reports have never been disproved.

A security official in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Afghan intelligence services believed that Haqqani had in fact died some three years ago. The official said the announcement of the death should be seen in connection with increased pressure from the US on Pakistan over accusations that Islamabad is not doing enough to defeat militant groups on its territory.