ISLAMABAD: Afghan Taliban on Tuesday confirmed the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani after a protracted illness. Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose son Sirajuddin heads the Haqqani network and is also the Taliban’s deputy leader, died after a long battle with illness, the Taliban said in a statement. Americans and Afghan officials believed it was he who founded the Haqqani network. Taliban sources had earlier confirmed to Daily Times that Haqqani died in 2014, years after he was injured in an foreign forces strike in eastern Khost province in late 2001 when the American forces launched an operation against the Taliban. He has been blamed for a series of deadly attacks in Afghanistan. During the 1980s, the Haqqani figurehead was an Afghan commander fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan with the help of the US and Pakistan. He led armed resistance from eastern Afghanistan. He established a big religious school in Pakistan’s North Waziristan in 1980s for resistance against the Soviets. He was born in 1938 in Paktiya province in a Zadran tribe and was the eldest among siblings, a family source said. Haqqani had declared support to the Taliban when they reached Paktiya in early 1990s and handed over his all arms and ammunition to then Taliban governor Torak Agha. Later, he became a minister in the Taliban regime. Analysts and diplomats downplayed the significance of his death for the group’s operations. Analyst Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Centre in Washington tweeted: “Given how long he’d been ill, his death won’t have a big impact on the war.” “His death is not going to affect the network or Taliban operations because he was not an active member,” Afghan political analyst Atta Noori said. “He was too old, sick and in bed for years.” Published in Daily Times, September 5th 2018.