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Last Updated:March 24, 2025, 18:12 IST
The Trump administration lifted the bounties on Sirajuddin Haqqani and two other senior Taliban figures, Abdul Aziz Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani.
The UAE Presidential Court shows UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (R) meeting with Sirajuddin Haqqani (2nd-L), interior minister in Afghanistan's Taliban administration, at al-Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi on January 20, 2025. (IMAGE: AFP)
Sirajuddin Haqqani, responsible for killing an American citizen in the January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, was granted a surprise reprieve from the US government led by Donald Trump on Sunday.
Haqqani, who also orchestrated a suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008, killing 58, with the help of the Pakistani Inter-State Services (ISI), is a senior figure in the Taliban government of Afghanistan and is the current interior minister.
He is also the leader of the Haqqani Network (HN) and the eldest son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a mujahideen fighter and founder of the HN. After Jalaluddin’s death, Sirajuddin took over the group.
The Haqqani Network carried out a suicide bombing at Camp Chapman, a CIA base in Khost Province, killing seven CIA officers. It was also responsible for the attack on the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, involving multiple gunmen and suicide bombers. It also carried out a coordinated assault on the US Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul, lasting 19 hours in September 2011.
His group also led an assault on a Sikh temple in Kabul, killing 25 civilians, in 2020.
The US State Department designated Sirajuddin Haqqani a global terrorist in 2008 and classified the Haqqani Network as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2012. Initially, a $5 million bounty was placed on him for information leading to his capture, which was doubled to $10 million in 2014.
However, he no longer appears on the State Department’s Rewards for Justice website. The FBI website on Monday still featured a wanted poster for him.
Afghanistan foreign ministry official, Zakir Jalaly, said the Taliban’s release of US prisoner George Glezmann on Friday and the removal of bounties showed both sides were “moving beyond the effects of the wartime phase and taking constructive steps to pave the way for progress" in bilateral relations.
“The recent developments in Afghanistan-US relations are a good example of the pragmatic and realistic engagement between the two governments," said Jalaly.
Location :Kabul, Afghanistan
First Published:March 24, 2025, 18:12 IST
News world Who Is Sirajuddin Haqqani, Mastermind Behind Kabul Indian Embassy Attack, Gifted Reprieve By Trump?
