The Haqqani clan, between Pakistan and Al-Qaeda (Part 1)
Afghanistan has undergone a regime change this year in which the Taliban will once again govern, as they did between 1996 and 2001, although, as was to be expected, they have not taken into account the different political and religious beliefs, setting up an entirely Taliban government, entirely Sunni and governed by Shari'a law, bringing in the Haqqani clan, which has undoubtedly largely marked the Taliban's strategy over the last few years. The most representative of the clan would be Sirajuddin Haqqani, now Minister of the Interior, his brother Anas Haqqani without portfolio, but a key element in the Doha negotiations and in relations with the media, Khalil Haqqani who would be the uncle of the previous two and Minister of Refugees, ending with Sirajuddin's brother-in-law, Yahya Haqqani, all of them influenced by their relationship with Al-Qaeda and Pakistan.
If there is one word that is indisputably linked to the victory of the second Taliban regime, it is "Haqqani", which encompasses an entire Sunni insurgent network, led by the Haqqani family clan, the most radical faction within the Taliban network, to which the clan pledged allegiance in 19951 . The Taliban would not have come this far without the contribution of the clan and its thousands of paramilitaries. The clan was born under patriarch Jalaluddin Haqqani in the 1980s and targeted the Soviet troops that invaded Afghanistan. After pledging allegiance to the Taliban, he entered Kabul with his men in 1996, serving as Minister of Frontiers during the first Taliban regime until he left and became governor of Paktia. In 2001, he fled to Pakistan along with thousands of Taliban fleeing American and British forces. According to Taliban sources, he died in 2015, leaving his son Sirajuddin in charge of leadership, although he had been sharing important decisions with his father for years. According to expert sources, the Taliban in general and the Haqqanis in particular spent many years of their lives in Pakistan, more specifically in North Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan.
The patriarch received his doctorate from Darul Uloom Haqqania University on the outskirts of Penshawar3 , which indoctrinated him in the orthodox Sunni Deobandi current, widespread among ethnic Pashtuns, which advocates that Islam should follow the ideas of the seventh century, as Muhammad said, and that every Muslim is first and foremost bound by religion and Shari'a law. Years later, it was his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who graduated in Islamic studies from this Islamic university. Anas Haqqani, a member of the Taliban negotiating group in Doha, lived and studied in the Waziristan region as a young man. Kalhil Haqqani, the uncle of the above, spent years in northern Pakistan's Waziristan region. Finally, there was a very important link in the clan, Yahya Haqqani and Sirajuddin's brother-in-law, a Pakistani by birth.
On a visit to Pakistan by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself, at a press conference in 2010, she said she met with members of the clan there: "We had a preliminary meeting, to determine whether they would be willing to take part in a subsequent preliminary meeting4» .
Pakistan was one of the three countries that recognised the first Taliban regime, serving as a safe haven for them after they fled in 2001. It was an area little controlled by the Pakistani army, until control increased over the years, mainly because of the Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which declared war on the Pakistani government, leading to a very bloody confrontation between the two sides. The border with Afghanistan was a crossing point for the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani clan, who wanted to secure the border with Pakistan, although the clan kept their distance from the Pakistani Taliban, who were a source of problems, especially with the various tribes that inhabited the region. For this reason, three factions should be distinguished among the Taliban: the Afghan faction in Kandahar, the Afghan faction of the Haqqani clan in the province of Paktia and the most problematic for Pakistan and for the Afghan Taliban itself, the Pakistani Taliban faction of the TTP, which in 2014 claimed responsibility for the attack on a school in Peshawar, killing more than 130 children, most of them children of military personnel.
The Haqqanis shared their safe haven with Al-Qaeda, which would not have had the security it enjoyed in many of its movements had it not been for the clan's protection. Their relationship goes back as far as 1984, when the clan's patriarch, Jalaluddin, called on foreign fighters to fight in Afghanistan against the Russian invaders, a call that Bin Laden heeded, beginning his relationship with the clan, settling in 1986 in Paktia, where he set up a training base for foreign volunteers with the clan's permission5.In 1988, this base was renamed Al-Qaeda. Thus the fate of the Haqqani clan and Bin Laden's organisation was sealed forever, and the clan became part of the objectives of global jihad.
Already in the midst of negotiations with the USA in 2020, according to a report by the United Nations Security Council, it was revealed that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda actively collaborated during the negotiations in Doha, with the Pakistani Yahya Haqqani, Sirajuddin's brother-in-law and trusted confidant, being responsible, among other things, according to the US State Department, for the suicide operations of the Haqqani clan. The report even placed Yahya at a meeting in February 2020 with Al-Qaeda Al-Zawahiri's number one, to ask him for consultations on the signing of the Doha6 agreements. As can be seen, all the negotiation that was carried out by senior members of the Taliban organisation, including Haqqani, was known first-hand to the Al-Qaida terrorist organisation.
After the triumphal entry into Kabul, the Haqqanis made a show of force with their elite unit "Badri 313"7, deploying at Kabul airport and on the main arteries of the city. One of the spokesmen was Anas Haqqani himself, the younger brother of the clan leader, the public face of the clan and a regular on social media. Sirajuddin Haqqani would be the head of the clan and leader of the elite unit "Badri 313"8 which owes its name to a battle in which 313 Muslim soldiers led by the prophet Mohammed in the year 624 defeated in the Saudi town of Badr the members of the Quraysh tribe who controlled Mecca and its holiest place. Al-Qaeda had a similar group in Pakistan called "Brigade 313". whose name also had to do with that battle of the prophet and whose mission was to attack, among other things, US interests in Pakistan.
But the laurels of victory have passed and it is now time to govern, to make policy, which is why the Haqqanis, especially Sirajuddin, have made continuous appeals for peace and respect for all Afghans9, aware that indiscriminate violence against the Afghan population and especially against women can be turned against them. Afghan women's rights have become a target for the Taliban and they have no intention of being open-minded, having not given any women a place in their government, but neither do they want to return to the mistakes of the first Taliban government in 1996, which completely lost the battle of public opinion by committing proven errors such as isolating itself from the world by not seeking the support of major powers not exactly allied with the US, such as China.
Pakistani intelligence chief General Hameed Faiz and Army General Javed Bajwa were in Kabul on 4 September to influence the constitution of the interim government to be formed on 6 September and thus safeguard their country's interests. It has been said by experts that the Pakistani military met with members of the future Afghan government, but no one has been able to ensure that the Pakistani military met with the Haqqani clan, which should be taken for granted, especially with Sirajuddin, the current Interior Minister, not forgetting an important detail, which is that General Hameed was dismissed weeks after the visit to put him in command of the XI Corps in the complicated area of Peshawar10 .
To end with Pakistan's intervention in the Doha talks process, one detail is that Taliban leader Gani Baradar attended the Doha talks on a Pakistani passport. Douglas London, former CIA chief in the area, stated categorically: "The Afghan Taliban would not be where they are without the help of the Pakistanis."
As far as Al-Qaeda is concerned, it will be a power in the shadow of the Haqqanis, someone still doubts it.
Luis Montero Molina, Sec2Crime contributor
Bibliography
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1650461
