The US has removed millions of dollars in bounties from senior members of the Haqqani militant network in Afghanistan, including one on its leader Sirajuddin Haqqani who is also the Taliban government’s interior minister.
It is a significant move given that the Haqqani network is accused of carrying out some of the most high-profile and deadly attacks in Afghanistan during the US-led war in the country, including attacks on the American and Indian embassies, and NATO forces.
Currently, the network is a key part of the Taliban government, which has controlled Afghanistan since foreign troops withdrew from the country in 2021, following a deal struck between the US and the Taliban during President Trump’s first term.
The move to lift the bounties comes weeks into President Trump’s second term, and just days after US officials met with the Taliban government in Kabul to secure the release of an American tourist, detained since 2022.
A US state department spokesperson confirmed to the BBC that “there is no current reward” for Sirajuddin Haqqani, his brother Abdul Aziz Haqqani and brother-in-law Yahya Haqqani, but they remain ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorists and the Haqqani Network remains designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization”.
An FBI webpage, which on Monday showed a $10 million dollar bounty on Sirajuddin Haqqani, has now been updated to remove the reward offer.
Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told the BBC that the lifting of bounties “was a result of continued diplomatic efforts” by his government. “It is a good step and this shows our new interaction with the world and particularly with the United States. They (the US delegation) told us they want to increase positive interaction and confidence building between us,” he added.
On Saturday, a US delegation including hostage envoy Adam Boehler and former envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad met with the Taliban government’s foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and other Taliban officials in Kabul. Afterwards, US national George Glezmann, detained in December 2022 while visiting Afghanistan as a tourist, was released by the Taliban government.
It is unclear if lifting the bounties was a part of the negotiations.
Founded by Sirajuddin Haqqani’s father, Jalaluddin Haqqani in the 1980s, the Haqqani network started out as a CIA-backed anti-Soviet outfit operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it grew into one of the most feared anti-Western militant organisations in the region.
The group allied with the Taliban when they first took power in Afghanistan in 1996. Jalaluddin Haqqani died of a prolonged illness in 2018.
Currently, Sirajuddin Haqqani is emerging as a power centre in Afghanistan’s Taliban government, as rifts between him and the Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada grow.
Members of the Taliban government have told the BBC that the issue of women’s education is a key point of disagreement between the two sides.
The Haqqanis have sought to project themselves as more moderate, galvanising support among people in the country who are frustrated by the supreme leader’s intransigence on women’s education.
The dropping of bounties by the US government is evidence that its stature is also growing externally, among parts of the international community keen to engage with the Taliban.
Additional reporting by Mahfouz Zubaide and Bernd Debusmann
