Jalaluddin Haqqani

Jalaluddin was born in 1939 in the village of Karezgay in the Zadran District of Paktia Province, Afghanistan.

He was an ethnic Pashtun from the Zadran tribe of Khost.

His father was a relatively wealthy landowner and trader.

The family later moved to Sultankhel.

He started advanced religious studies at Darul Uloom Haqqania, a Deobandi Islamic seminary (darul uloom), in Pakistan in 1964.

He graduated in 1970 with an advanced qualification that entitled him to the status of mawlawi, and added "Haqqani" to his name, as some alumni of Darul Uloom Haqqania had done.

After King Zahir Shah's exile and President Daoud Khan rose to power in 1973, the political situation in Afghanistan began to slowly change.

A number of parties, such as the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), and other people were seeking power.

Haqqani was one of them, and after being suspected of plotting against the government, he went into exile and based himself in and around Miranshah, Pakistan.

From there he began to organise a rebellion against the government of Daoud Khan in 1975.

After the 1978 Marxist revolution by the PDPA, Haqqani joined the Hezb-i Islami movement of Mawlawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis.

He distinguished himself as an internationally sponsored insurgent fighter in the 1980s during the Soviet–Afghan War, including in Operation Magistral.

He earned U.S. praise and was called "goodness personified" by the U.S. officials.

US officials have admitted that during the Soviet–Afghan War, he was a prized asset of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Former U.S. president Ronald Reagan called Jalaluddin Haqqani a "freedom fighter" during the Soviet–Afghan War.

In the 1980s, Jalaluddin Haqqani was cultivated as a "unilateral" asset of the CIA and received tens of millions of dollars in cash for his work in fighting the Soviet-led Afghan forces in Afghanistan, according to an account in The Bin Ladens, a 2008 book by Steve Coll.

He reputedly attracted generous support from prosperous Arab countries compared to other resistance leaders.

At that time, Haqqani helped and protected Osama bin Laden, who was building his own militia to fight Soviet-backed Afghanistan.

Mujahids under his command were also responsible for the assassination of Faiz Mohammed and two other diplomats in Lake Tiga, Paktia Province.

The influential U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson, who helped to direct tens of millions of dollars to the Afghan Islamists, was so taken by Haqqani that he referred to him as "goodness personified".

Charles Wilson also desired to fire a Stinger missile at one of the Soviet helicopters.

Haqqani was happy to make Charles Wilson's wartime fantasy come true.

They dragged chains and tires on road to create dust cloud which will attract the Soviet helicopters.

However, none of the Soviet helicopters came and Charles Wilson was unable to fire any missile.

This episode highlights the type of relationship which U.S. officials and Haqqani network used to share.

He was a key US and Pakistani ally in resisting the Soviet-backed Afghanistan.

Some news media outlets report that Haqqani even received an invitation to, and perhaps even visited, President Ronald Reagan's White House, although the photographs used to support the allegation of such a meeting have cast doubt that Haqqani ever visited the US.

(The pictures originally purporting to show this meeting are, in fact, of Mohammad Yunus Khalis.)

During the rule of Najibullah in 1991, Haqqani captured the city of Khost, which became the first communist city to fall to the jihadis.

After the fall of Kabul to the Mujahideen forces in 1992, he was appointed Justice Minister of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, and refrained from taking sides in the fratricidal conflict that broke out between Afghan factions during the 1990s, a neutrality that was to earn him respect.

Haqqani was not an original member of the Taliban; in 1995, just prior to the Taliban's occupation of Kabul, he switched his allegiance to them.

In 1996–97, he served as a Taliban military commander north of Kabul, and was accused of ethnic cleansing against local Tajik populations.

During the Taliban government, he served as the Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs and governor of Paktia Province.

By 2004, he was directing pro-Taliban insurgent group to launch a holy war in Afghanistan.

Media reports emerged in late July 2015 that Haqqani had died the previous year.

According to the reports, he died in Afghanistan and was buried in Khost Province of Afghanistan.

These reports were denied by the Taliban and some members of the Haqqani family.

In 2016, U.S. Lieutenant General John W. Nicholson Jr. claimed that the U.S. and NATO were not targeting Haqqani's network in Afghanistan.

Jalaluddin Haqqani (جلال الدين حقاني) (1939 – 3 September 2018) was an Afghan insurgent commander who founded the Haqqani network, an insurgent group fighting in guerilla warfare against US-led NATO forces and the now former government of Afghanistan they support.

On 3 September 2018, the Taliban released a statement announcing that Haqqani had died after a long illness in Afghanistan.