By Mrityunjoy Kumar Jha
New Delhi, Aug 20: While top Taliban leaders are in Kandahar discussing how to govern the country, the security of the capital Kabul is now in the hands of the Haqqani network--the most lethal and dangerous component of the Taliban. The man ruling Kabul now is Haqqani clans youngest son - Anis Haqqani.
The Haqqani Network, a US banned terrorist group since 2012, is an important faction of the Taliban which captured Kabul on August 15, marking a return to power after two decades in the wilderness.
According to reports from the Afghan capital, nearly 6,000 cadre of the Haqqani Network have taken control of the capital city, led by Anas Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani the founder of network and brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the terrorist group and one of three deputy leaders of the Taliban.
And since then, it is Anis Haqqani who has been meeting with Afghan government council, comprising former president Hamid Karzai, Gulbudin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hizb-e-Islami political and paramilitary group, and Abdullah Abdullah, the deposed administration's chief peace envoy.
Interestingly Anis Haqqani was arrested in 2014. According to the Afghan security forces, he played an important role in the network's strategy and fund-raising. He was also charged for murders, kidnappings etc. There is a rumour that he killed his girlfriend too. In 2016 he was sentenced to death, but was released with his two commanders in 2019 in exchange for the release of two Haqqani-held professors who were abducted while working for the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), Kevin King, 63, from the US, and Timothy Weeks, 50, from Australia.
Anis was flown to Doha where he joined the political group of the Taliban. Now he is back in Kabul and on Thursday he met with former Senate Chairman Muslimyar who, at one time, wanted Anis to be executed immediately.
Muslimyar had recommended that since three courts have given the death sentence to Anis Haqqani, he should be hanged to stop further crimes committed by his group.
The second in command of the Haqqani network, Anis Haqqani now says that he has forgiven all his "foes" but the Kabul sources say that he is the most dangerous and vengeful person in the group. Despite Taliban's assurances that no door to door "search" will happen in Kabul, Anis's Haqqani fighters have intensified their hunt for people who worked for NATO forces or the previous Afghan government. On Thursday they went for a journalist of DW, a German news publication, and killed his relative.
Meanwhile, Anis Haqqani met religious clerics and officials of Panjshir, asking them to convince the leaders of Panjshir resistance force to peacefully handover Panjshir to the Taliban and avoid bloodshed.
The Panjshir resistance force is now known as the New Northern Alliance. It is headed by Ahmad Massoud, son of legendary Lion of Panjshir Ahmad Shah Massoud , with "acting" president Amrullah Saleh, one of Massoud's closest aides, also in the core team. According to Panjshir sources, the top commanders of Afghan forces, General Haibatullah Alizai, General Sami Sadat and many other brave commanders have arrived in Panjshir to fight against the Taliban. General Haibatullah Alizai, General Sami Sadat are dare devil officers of the Afghan army and they were promoted to generals just three days before the fall of Kabul.
A large & heavily armed battalion of approx. 3-5k diehard Afghan Soldiers/ Special force units have left Deh Sabz, in the outskirts of #Kabul & on their way to #Panjshir to join the resistance. Taliban tried to ambush but failed with losses," said one commander in his post.