Haqqani network's most wanted leader dies due to illness

KABUL: The Taliban on Tuesday announced the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani — its most senior leader and founder of the Haqqani network — responsible for several deadly attacks in Afghanistan in the recent years.
Mohammad Radmanesh, a spokesman for the defense ministry, told Arab News that Haqqani’s death will have no major impact on the group’s activities until key leaders of the are not killed or arrested.
“The demise of a leader naturally has its affects, but in this case not because the Taliban themselves say he was bed-ridden,” Radmanesh said.
The Taliban issued a statement announcing Haqqani’s death, but did not say when and where he died. “Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani was ill and bed-ridden for the past several years…and passed away after a long battle with illness,” it read.
A war veteran, during the invasion of Afghanistan in the 1990s by the former Soviet Union, Haqqani served as a minister during the Taliban rule until it was overthrown in 2001. Later, he formed a major front in southeastern Afghanistan by distributing weapons from his old stockpiles to locals interested in being part of the war’s latest chapter.
Despite being named as the leader of the Haqqani network, he never considered himself separate from the Taliban in its fight against foreign troops and the Afghan government.
Due to his advancing age, one of his sons, Sirajuddin Haqqani, runs the day-to-day affairs of the group. Apart from other family members, the senior Haqqani lost four of his sons to US airstrikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Afghan government and US officials accuse the Haqqani network of conducting deadly attacks in the country in recent years. Analyst Waheed Mozhdah said that Haqqani’s death would do nothing to change the political climate.
“He was not even able to communicate in recent years. His death won’t have any impact on the issues in Afghanistan.”

Haqqani network's most wanted leader dies due to illness