KABUL: The Taleban yesterday denied reports of the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the Pakistani-linked Haqqani network which is regularly blamed for major attacks in Afghanistan.
“We strongly dismiss the reports that Jalaluddin Haqqani is dead. He’s alive,” Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP, attributing the reports to “government propaganda.”
The Haqqanis, who are closely affiliated with the Taleban, are a key player in the insurgency against US-led NATO troops and Karzai’s Western-backed government, particularly in eastern Afghanistan.
Tolo, Afghanistan’s first 24-hour rolling news television channel, said Jalaluddin had died from kidney disease, claiming on its Twitter feed that the Taleban had confirmed it.
The United States blamed last month’s 18-hour assault on Kabul, the biggest to hit the capital in a decade, on the Haqqani network, saying the group’s leaders planned the attack from North Waziristan, in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt.
Before stepping down as chief US military officer last year, Adm. Mike Mullen caused a sensation when he told Congress that the Haqqani network was a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s intelligence agency.Haqqani is known to have close ties to Al-Qaeda, and after the fall of the Taleban regime in the 2001 US-led invasion, he joined the insurgency.
FROM: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Haqqani is alive, claim Taleban
