September 5, 2018: Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the dreaded militant Haqqani Network, responsible for some of the deadliest terror attacks against the US, Nato and Afghan troops in the last 17 years, is dead. The Afghan Taliban confirmed his death on Tuesday.
Without giving any details about the timing and place of his death, the Taliban said in a statement, "Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani was ill and bedridden for the past several years."
The Haqqani Network, founded in 1970s, fought the former Soviet Union throughout the 1980s. Jalaluddin, the founder was seen as a prized asset of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at the time.
He allied himself with the Taliban after they took power in Kabul in 1996 and became a cabinet minister. Following the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime, Haqqani turned his guns towards them. His outfit was one of the several militants groups operating from the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
