The Haqqanis are crucial for any Afghan peace deal
The feared Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network was again in the news recently when it secured the release of its three important members following a prisoner swap deal with the US and Afghanistan.
The US designated the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization in September 2012, but the label hasn’t stopped Washington and Kabul from talking and making deals with it. The US purposefully didn’t designate the Taliban movement as a terrorist group because it always intended to negotiate with it for reaching a political settlement.
Though the recent prisoner swap deal was made outwardly with the mainstream Taliban, it was no secret that the three men whose release was being demanded in exchange for two Western hostages, both instructors at the American University in Kabul, were associated with the Haqqani network.
It was also an open secret that 63 year old American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, 50, were in the custody of the Haqqani network since August 2016.
The deal therefore, had to be primarily negotiated with the Haqqani network, which was desperate to save the life of Anas Haqqani, the youngest son of the network’s founder and anti-Soviet fighter Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani who had been sentenced to death by a court in Afghanistan after his capture in October 2014.
In a bid to secure his release, Anas Haqqani’s elder brother, Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the Haqqani network and deputy leader of the Taliban movement, managed to include Anas’s name in the Taliban negotiating team which has been holding talks with the US in Qatar since 2018.
Though the recent prisoner swap deal was made outwardly with the mainstream Taliban, it was no secret that the three men whose release was being demanded in exchange for two Western hostages, both instructors at the American University in Kabul, were associated with the Haqqani network.
Rahimullah Yusufzai
Finally, as a result of the prisoners’ exchange, the Haqqani network won freedom for not only Anas Haqqani, but also his maternal uncle Mali Khan Zadran and colleague Hafiz Rasheed Omari.
It was yet another instance where the Haqqanis successfully used the kidnapping of foreigners and sometimes of high-profile Afghans, to force the US and Afghan governments to accept its demands, including the release of its men.
In another recent prisoners’ swap, 11 Taliban members were released by the Afghan government in exchange for three Indian engineers kidnapped in Afghanistan. The Haqqani network is known to have often targeted Indians, including a suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008, which killed nearly 60 people.
Though the Haqqani network’s hand has been behind some of the most spectacular attacks in the Afghan capital and on hotels popular with foreigners, embassies and military installations, arguably its biggest 'success' came in June 2014. It was successfully able to obtain the release of five senior Taliban figures from the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the lone American soldier taken prisoner in Afghanistan.
It managed to hold Bergdahl in custody for five years, moving him from one place to another in view of relentless US efforts to locate and free him.
One of the Taliban prisoners freed in exchange for Bergdahl was Mohammad Nabi Omari, affiliated with the Haqqani network and elder brother of Hafiz Rasheed Omari released along with Anas Haqqani. He is now a member of the Qatar-based Taliban Political Commission and negotiating team.
The US hasn’t objected to his presence in the Qatar talks even though he belongs to a designated terrorist organization. It is possible Anas Haqqani too will take a seat at the negotiating table when the Taliban next meet the Americans after the likely resumption of peace talks.
– Rahimullah Yusufzai is a senior political and security analyst in Pakistan. He was the first to interview Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and twice interviewed Osama Bin Laden in 1998.
Twitter: @rahimyusufzai1
