Top Haqqani Network leader named Taliban governor of Logar

[Valin]

FDD's Long War Journal

Bill Roggio

November 10, 2021

The Taliban appointed a top leader of the Haqqani Network, who was previously in U.S. custody, to serve as the group’s governor of the eastern province of Logar.

Haji Mali Khan was appointed by the Taliban to govern Logar on Nov. 7. Khan is an uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s current Minister of Interior and deputy emir who also leads the Al Qaeda and Pakistan-linked Haqqani network. Sirajuddin Haqqani is arguably the most powerful and influential Taliban leader and has also been described by the United Nations Sanction and Monitoring Team as “an Al Qaeda Leader.”

Khan is also the brother-in-law of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the deceased founder and patriarch of the Haqqani Network who helped Osama bin Laden return to Afghanistan in 1996 and was a key figure in cementing Al Qaeda and Taliban ties.

(Snip)

The three Haqqani leaders were freed in exchange for American University of Afghanistan professors Kevin King and Timothy Weeks, who were kidnapped by the Haqqani Network in Kabul in Aug. 2016.

Khan is one of several key Haqqani Network leaders to be appointed to top level posts in the Taliban’s new government. In addition to Sirajuddin, who is the minister of interior, Khalil al Rahman Haqqani is the minister of refugees, Mullah Taj Mir Jawad is the first deputy of intelligence, and Mohammad Nabi Omari, who is the governor of Khost.

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