The United States has withdrawn millions of dollars from bonuses from members of the Haqqani militant network in Afghanistan, including one on its chief Sirajuddin Haqqani who is also the Minister of the Interior of the Taliban government.
This is an important decision given that the Haqqani network is accused of having carried out some of the most publicized and fatal attacks in Afghanistan during the war led by the United States in the country, including attacks against American and Indian Embassies and NATO forces.
Currently, the network is a key element of the Taliban government, which controlled Afghanistan since the foreign troops withdrew from the country in 2021, following an agreement concluded between the United States and the Taliban during the first term of President Trump.
The decision to raise the premiums comes from weeks in the second term of President Trump, and only a few days after the US officials met the Taliban government in Kabul to guarantee the release of an American tourist, detained since 2022.
A spokesperson for the American State Department confirmed to the BBC that “there is no current award” for Sirajuddin Haqqani, his brother Abdul Aziz Haqqani and his brother-in-law Yahya Haqqani, but they remain specially designated global terrorists and the Haqqani network remains as a foreign terrorist organization.
An FBI web page, which showed a bonus of $ 10 million on Sirajuddin Haqqani on Monday, has now been updated to remove the reward offer.
Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told BBC that bonuses’ lifting “was the result of continuous diplomatic efforts” by his government. “This is a good step and it shows our new interaction with the world and in particular with the United States. They (the American delegation) told us that they wanted to increase positive interaction and confidence of trust between us,” he added.
On Saturday, an American delegation including the envoy hostage Adam Boehler and the former envoy of Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad met the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban government, Amir Khan Muttaqi and other Taliban officials of Kabul. Subsequently, the American national George Glezmann, detained in December 2022 while he was visiting Afghanistan as a tourist, was released by the Taliban government.
It is not clear if the raising of bonuses was part of the negotiations.
Founded by Sirajuddin Haqqani’s father, Jalaluddin Haqqani in the 1980s, the Haqqani network began as an anti-Soviet outfit supported by the CIA operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it has become one of the most feared anti-Western militant organizations in the region.
The group combined with the Taliban when they took power for the first time in Afghanistan in 1996. Jalaluddin Haqqani died of a prolonged disease in 2018.
Currently, Sirajuddin Haqqani emerges as an electricity center in the Taliban government of Afghanistan, while the rifles between him and the Supreme Taliban chief, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Members of the Taliban government told the BBC that the question of education of women was a key point of disagreement between the two parties.
The Haqqanis sought to project themselves as a more moderate and galvanizing support among the people of the country who are frustrated by the intransigence of the supreme chief on the education of women.
The drop in premiums by the American government proves that its stature also increases outside, among the parts of the international community wishing to engage with the Taliban.
Additional reports by Mahfouz Zubaide and Bernd Debusmann
