21 Facts About Sirajuddin Haqqani

Sirajuddin Haqqani has been a deputy leader of the Taliban since 2015, and was additionally appointed to his ministerial role after the 2021 withdrawal of foreign troops.

Sirajuddin Haqqani has led the Haqqani network, a semi-autonomous paramilitary arm of the Taliban, since inheriting it from his father in 2018, and has primarily had military responsibilities within the Taliban.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is currently wanted by the FBI for questioning due to his role in the 2008 Kabul Serena Hotel attack that killed six people, including American citizen Thor David Hesla and an attempted assassination of President Hamid Karzai, with the US State Department designating him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and offering a reward of $10 million for information about his location that will lead to his arrest.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Pashtun mujahid and military leader of pro-Taliban forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sirajuddin Haqqani spent his childhood in Miramshah, North Waziristan, Pakistan, and later attended Darul Uloom Haqqania, an influential Deobandi Islamic seminary in Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, known to have produced many graduates who ultimately joined the Taliban.

Sirajuddin Haqqani has admitted planning the January 14,2008 attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including American citizen Thor David Hesla.

Sirajuddin Haqqani confessed his organization and direction of the planning of an attempt to assassinate Hamid Karzai, planned for April 2008.

Sirajuddin Haqqani's forces have been accused by coalition forces of carrying out the late December 2008 bombing in Kabul at a barracks near an elementary school that killed several schoolchildren, an Afghan soldier, and an Afghan guard; no coalition personnel were affected.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is reported to have been Rohde's last captor prior to his escape.

Several reports indicated that Sirajuddin Haqqani was targeted in a massive US drone attack on 2 February 2010, but that he was not present in the area affected by the attack.

In March 2010, Sirajuddin Haqqani was described as one of the leaders on the "Taliban's Quetta Shura".

Sirajuddin Haqqani was appointed the second deputy leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan by Leader Akhtar Mansour upon the latter's election on 29 July 2015.

Sirajuddin Haqqani was elevated to the position of first deputy leader when Hibatullah Akhundzada, who was the first deputy under Mansour, assumed the leadership on 25 May 2016.

Jalaluddin Haqqani died in 2018 after a long illness and Sirajuddin became the leader of the Haqqani network, though Jalaluddin may have turned over operational control as early as 2008.

On 31 May 2020, British Taliban expert Antonio Guistozzi told Foreign Policy that Sirajuddin Haqqani was infected with COVID-19, which resulted in him being absent from the group's leadership mix.

Sirajuddin Haqqani gave his first ever on-camera interview in May 2022, with Christiane Amanpour in Kabul.

Sirajuddin Haqqani claimed the schools would reopen once dress code issues were resolved, and said the veil decree was only advisory, despite evidence to the contrary.

Sirajuddin Haqqani said the Taliban wants good relations with the United States and the international community, and no longer sees the US as an enemy.

In February 2023, Sirajuddin Haqqani issued a rare rebuke of the government's hardline policies, which was widely interpreted as a criticism aimed at Akhundzada, who has governed in an increasingly autocratic and ultraconservative fashion.

In June 2024, Sirajuddin Haqqani made his first visit overseas since the takeover, to meet UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi.

Sirajuddin Haqqani wrote an opinion piece titled "What We, the Taliban, Want", which appeared in The New York Times on 20 February 2020.