NEW DEPUTY INTEL CHIEF RAN SUICIDE ATTACK NETWORK, CLOSE TO PAK MILITARY

NEW DELHI: Taj Mir Jawad, the man named as the deputy intelligence chief in the new Taliban set-up, has been described by security and intelligence officials of several countries as the head of a network of suicide bombers responsible for attacks in Kabul.

Jawad, considered a member of the inner circle of the Taliban’s military set-up, will serve as the first deputy to new intelligence chief, Abdul Haq Wasiq.

Several serving and former security officials of various countries said Jawad had a hand in some of the most devastating suicide attacks carried out in Kabul in recent years. Another former western intelligence official, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity, said Jawad directed suicide networks and was “tight with Pakistan’s security establishment”.

Rahmatullah Nabil, who served as head of Afghanistan’s spy agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), had in 2018 blamed Jawad, also known as Maulvi Zabiullah, of supervising the Al-hamza Martyrdom Brigade, a training centre for suicide bombers. Nabil had said at the time that the suicide attacker who killed Abdul Raziq Achakzai, a police chief, was trained by the Al-hamza outfit.

Jawad was largely based in Peshawar at the time and had planned the killing of Raziq with Mullah Shireen, a member of the Taliban’s Quetta council, named after the Pakistani city where it is based.

The Long War Journal, a website that tracks jihadi groups, had reported as far back as 2013 that Jawad was also a senior commander in the dreaded Haqqani Network and jointly led what was referred to as the “Kabul Attack Network” with another Taliban commander named Dawood, who was the shadow governor for Kabul.

“The Kabul Attack Network operates in the capital and in the surrounding provinces of Wardak, Logar, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kapisa, Khost, Paktia, and Paktika. It has executed numerous high-profile attacks in the capital over the years,” the Long War Journal had reported.