Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani makes first public appearance

Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who also heads the feared Haqqani Network, was photographed openly for the first time Saturday at a passing-out parade for new Afghan police recruits.

“For your satisfaction and for building your trust… I am appearing in the media in a public meeting with you,” he said in a speech at the parade.

Before the Taliban’s return, Haqqani was the most senior of the three deputies to leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Haqqani heads a powerful subset of the Taliban blamed for some of the worst violence of the past 20 years.

The Haqqani Network, founded in the 1970s by Jalaluddin Haqqani, was heavily supported by the CIA during the Mujahideen war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is believed to be in his 40s, is his son and succeeded him following his death in 2018.

Sirajuddin was blamed for the deadly 2008 attack on Kabul’s Serena Hotel that killed six people, as well as at least one assassination attempt against former Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

He is reported to have been the target of several US drone strikes — in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in the rugged terrain between them that is the heartland of the Haqqani Network.

He was also credited as the author of a New York Times opinion piece in 2020 titled “What We, the Taliban, Want”, sparking controversy that the newspaper had given “terrorists” a public platform.