The United States has lifted its $10 million bounty onTaliban’s Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister in Afghanistan’s Taliban-led regime, officials in Kabul said on Sunday.
The US government has also removed the bounties placed on two other senior Taliban figures, namely Abdul Aziz Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani, interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said.
“These three individuals are two brothers and one paternal cousin,” Qani told the Associated Press.
Sirajuddin Haqqani no longer appears on the US State Department’s Rewards for Justice website. However, the website of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Sunday still featured a wanted poster for him.
Taliban foreign ministry hails ‘constructive steps’
A Taliban-led foreign ministry’s official, Zakir Jalaly, said the group’s release of American prisoner George Glezmann on Friday, and the removal of bounties showed both sides were “moving beyond the effects of the wartime phase and taking constructive steps to pave the way for progress” in bilateral relations.
“The recent developments in Afghanistan-US relations are a good example of the pragmatic and realistic engagement between the two governments,” said Jalaly.
Another official, Shafi Azam, hailed the development as the “beginning of normalization” in 2025, citing the group’s announcement it was in control of the Afghan embassy in Norway.
Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan following the departure of foreign troops in August 2021, China has been the most prominent country to accept a Taliban diplomat. Other countries, like Qatar, which has been a key mediator between the US and the Taliban, have accepted “de facto” Taliban representatives.
US envoys have also met the Taliban.
Sirajuddin Haqqani and Haqqani network
Sirajuddin Haqqani also heads the powerful Haqqani network blamed for fatal attacks against the former Western-backed government in Kabul, which fell in August 2021. He had previously acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in the capital, which killed six people, including American citizen Thor David Hesla.
The Haqqani network grew into one of the deadliest arms of the Taliban after the US-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, which followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
The Haqqanis employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and other attacks, including on the Indian and US embassies, the Afghan presidency, and other major targets. They also have been linked to extortion, kidnapping and other criminal activities.
