24 Facts About Jalaluddin Haqqani

Jalaluddin Haqqani 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.

Jalaluddin Haqqani earned US praise and was called "goodness personified" by the US officials.

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

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

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

Jalaluddin Haqqani was an ethnic Pashtun from the Zadran tribe of Khost.

Jalaluddin Haqqani's father was a relatively wealthy landowner and trader.

Jalaluddin Haqqani started advanced religious studies at Darul Uloom Haqqania, a Deobandi Islamic seminary, in Pakistan in 1964.

Jalaluddin Haqqani 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.

Jalaluddin 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.

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

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

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

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

Some news media outlets report that Jalaluddin 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 Jalaluddin Haqqani ever visited the US.

Jalaluddin 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 October 2001, Jalaluddin Haqqani was named the Taliban's military commander.

Jalaluddin Haqqani refused their offers on the grounds that, as a Muslim, he was duty bound to resist them as "infidel invaders", just as he had the Soviets in earlier decades.

The madrasah, though, was closed and Jalaluddin Haqqani had previously left the area.

Jalaluddin Haqqani has been accused by the United States of involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul and the February 2009 Kabul raids.

Jalaluddin Haqqani was the commander, with his son Sirajuddin, of the Jalaluddin Haqqani network.

George Gittoes, the Australian maker of Pashto-language films at his Yellow House in Jalalabad says Jalaluddin Haqqani, who has befriended him, would be ready to support Ashraf Ghani in future Afghan elections.

Jalaluddin Haqqani was fluent in Persian, Arabic, Urdu and his native Pashto language.

Jalaluddin Haqqani had two wives, a Pashtun wife and an Arab wife from the United Arab Emirates, and had at least seven sons:.