KABUL — One of the
Taliban's most secretive leaders, whose only picture on US "most
wanted" lists is a grainy semi-covered profile, was photographed openly
for the first time Saturday at a passing-out parade for new Afghan police
recruits.
اضافة اعلان
Interior Minister
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who also heads the feared Haqqani Network, has previously only been
photographed clearly from behind — even since the hardline Islamists seized
power last August.
"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 three deputies to leader
Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Akhundzada himself hasn't
been seen in public for years, and many Afghan analysts believe he may not even
be alive.
Haqqani heads a powerful
subset of the Taliban blamed for some of the worst violence of the past 20
years.
The
US has offered a reward
of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest, saying he was
responsible for a string of terror attacks.
Pictures of Haqqani were
being widely shared on social media Saturday by Taliban officials who had
previously only posted photographs that didn't show his face, or if it had been
digitally blurred.
At the police parade Saturday,
Haqqani was dressed like many of the senior Taliban officials — very heavily
bearded and wearing a black turban and white shawl.
He said he was showing his
face so "you could know how much value we have with our leadership".
Not seen in
public
Haqqani's appearance also
suggests the Taliban have grown even more confident of their hold on the
country since seizing power on August 15, two weeks before the last US-led
foreign forces left.
Several diplomats were in
the crowd — including
Pakistan's ambassador — even though no country has
officially recognize the new Taliban regime.
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.
The latter 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.
The FBI Rewards for Justice
program says he maintains "close ties" to Al-Qaeda, and "is a
specially designated global terrorist".
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.
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